Press

Review of “Send Off”

| Tonja Torgerson

Fed, serigraph, 22 x 15" 2010

Glasstire just published a wonderful review of Send Off,  the current print exhibition at grayDUCK Gallery in Austin, Texas. It included some very kind words about my work in the show:

“Bite by Torgerson is particular haunting, depicting a young woman ingesting (or is that regurgitating?) an unidentifiable, gold substance—a scene rendered peaceful through historical portrait conventions, Damson branch oval vignetting, and a returned gaze. Further down the wall of four (un)traditional portraits, Torgerson’s Fed is a quite sensible portrait of a conservatively dressed woman, save the absurdity of a pile of cash crammed into her mouth. The work references physical money in a secondary, more subtle way: its full-profile circular style mimics the design of a coin. I doubt that it is lost on the artist that currency is also editioned, and in the case of paper money, printed.”

You can find the whole review here.

UPPERCASE arrives

| Tonja Torgerson

This came in the mail today, I am so excited that I had to share!

UPPERCASE is a lovely magazine about art, artists, design and other creative practices. And I am thrilled to be included in this amazing publication, and share a little of my Fogo Island adventure.

Below is a low res preview of the whole magazine, but you’ll have to buy your own copy if you want to read the whole thing. It’s worth it!

Article on Permanent

| Tonja Torgerson

Permanent, the art and design group located in Minneapolis, recently featured an article about my artist selections for the most recent exhibition at XYandZ Gallery. They were kind enough to say a few flattering things about me:

“Tonja, who originally showed her work at XYandZ in January 2010, has had quite a few of her own successes. She recently beat tough competition, proving her printmaking finesse in two major juried print exhibits. Her work is included in the Atlanta Print Biennial International, at Barbara Archer Gallery in Atlanta, chosen out of over 750 applicants from the U.S., Canada, Europe and Japan. Her work was also chosen out of over 300 applicants to be shown in Print U.S.A. 2011 at the Springfield Art Museum.”

You can find the whole article here.

I selected Jennifer Davis and Ellen Mueller for the TWO exhibition. TWO is an exhibition about the connections between artists, for TWO past artists who exhibited at XYandZ Gallery were able to select two artists that they would like to have showcased at XYandZ.  TWO opens with a sale on Friday Novemeber 25th.

SUBPAR on the front page of The Eagle

| Tonja Torgerson

SUBPAR and Salt City Dishes are the front page story of this week’s The Eagle (CNY). The paper included two articles about the grant and gives a glowing review of the microgrant event:

“Only one of the nine project proposals would walk away with the $1,000 minigrant from the debut Salt City DISHES dinner on Sunday, but the intangible benefits, the networking and exposure each project gained from the event were just as invaluable.”

A second article details the ideas behind our winning proposal:

“The SUBPAR proposal will create “unconventional street art” using hand-made, screenprinted ceramic tiles mortared permanently into place in an otherwise unused, unnoticed public space.
‘Imagine a series of tiles that add a splash of color on a drab grey wall or boarded up window,’ the team said during their presentation Sunday.”

You can find the whole article here.

And more about the first Salt City DISHES event here.

UPPERCASE Magazine

| Tonja Torgerson
I woke up a few days ago to find this on UPPERCASE’s blog:

These photographs of me working on COBRA were showcased as a part of a new Flickr Group created by UPPERCASE. WIPS (The Work in Progress Society) contains photographs of unfinished art that are both beautiful and revealing.

UPPERCASE is also working hard on their new quarterly magazine, which will be premiering this spring. I am so happy to see new publications about art are being produced. We need them!