Curtis Bartone, Let the Sun Cast a Spell on the Sky, polymer plate intaglio on copperplate paper 8" x 5½"
Closing Reception: Friday, July 26, 6-9:00 pm
Curtis Bartone’s work examines how human beings fit into the fabric of the contemporary landscape—a landscape that can no longer be seen as “pristine” or “natural” as it reflects centuries of manipulating the environment to fit our immediate needs.
His work seeks to redefine our perception and role as we battle between stewardship and overconsumption. Through Bartone’s process of creating collages and sketches, and by further developing the composition on the print matrix, preconceptions about what “belongs” and what doesn’t are re-examined. Similarities and connections begin to emerge in these constructed, diorama-like landscapes, giving a view into possible futures—both despairing and hopeful—as we consider the outcomes of our behavior. The division between native and invasive, wild and domestic, desirable and useless, destruction and regrowth, becomes less clear, as does our role in this web of life.
Where will this ultimately lead? We are at a crossroads—a pivotal point. In evaluating the balance between need and want, between what we find beautiful or repugnant, there is a chance to grow—to develop a new way of perceiving and to redefine our relationship with our environment and other living things.
Curtis Bartone
Curtis Bartone’s work has been included in numerous group and solo exhibitions, both nationally and internationally. In August 2024, there will be an exhibition of recent print-media work at Stiwdio Maelor in Wales, UK. Bartone has been awarded grants and funded residencies, and his work is included in public and private collections. He received an MFA in painting from Northwestern University in Chicago and a BFA from Columbus College of Art and Design. He currently resides in Savannah, Georgia with his wife and seven rescue cats, where he maintains an active studio practice and teaches printmaking at the Savannah College of Art and Design.
Curtis Bartone, Trillium, stone lithography, 6" x 7".
Trillium was the First Prize winner selected by juror LuLen Walker in the 2023 Peggy Doole National Small Works competition, sponsored by the Washington Print Foundation.