Tommy Fitzpatrick: Open Source

Holly Johnson Gallery is pleased to announce the opening of an exhibition of new paintings by Tommy Fitzpatrick. OPEN SOURCE marks Fitzpatrick’s sixth solo exhibition at the gallery and demonstrates how our perception of the built environment can evolve over time. These new paintings embrace a greater ambiguity and make them visible in a new and exciting way. A reception for the artist will be held Saturday October 8th, from 5-8 p.m.

Architecture has long been a primary source of inspiration for Tommy Fitzpatrick. He sees architecture as a record of past ideas, and his works present both their ruins and their utopian potential.  Until 2020, he worked from models—either handmade sculptural forms or forms constructed digitally—to make his paintings. This contradiction between real and illusion is the terrain he has been exploring for decades.

Fitzpatrick has been exploring a new mode of inspiration with SketchUp, an architectural software that creates "happy accidents" leading to obscure any logical reading of the works. Applying paint using tools rather than traditional brushes – is also a new process in the studio. He recently stated, "It wasn't until the last two years that I began using non-art tools to paint with. I started using trowels and spatulas, tools that are used for laying concrete. ...those things really opened up painting for me…the paintings are becoming singular, and they are illusionistic, but they are more about themselves than they are about portraying something. I'm really letting the paint take over and letting the paint be the first thing you see as opposed to the image."

In 2020, the gallery published Tommy Fitzpatrick: Superflux, a catalogue written by John Zotos and designed by Lily Smith-Kirkley of Lilco Studio. Other catalogues include Geometry in Reflection at the University of Texas at Arlington, essay by Christina Rees; Bridge, a 2006 solo show in Berlin; and Object Lessons, accompanying the traveling exhibition at the Galveston Arts Center, Texas A&M in Commerce, and The Arlington Museum of Art.

Fitzpatrick (b. Dallas 1969) received a B.A. in Fine Art from the University of Texas in Austin (1991), followed by an M.F.A. from Yale University School of Art (1993). Fitzpatrick has shown in numerous exhibitions in cities such as Houston, Madrid, New York, London, Dallas, Berlin, and Seoul. His paintings are in the collection of the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, the Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth, the Art Museum of South Texas in Corpus Christi, and the Menil Collection in Houston. He resides in New Braunfels and is currently Professor of Painting at Texas State University in San Marcos, Texas.

Holly Johnson Gallery is located at 1845 East Levee Street #100 in Dallas, Texas. Gallery hours are 11:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m., Tuesday through Saturday, and by appointment. The gallery is a founding member of CADD – Contemporary Art Dealers of Dallas. For more information, please call 214-369-0169, or email info@hollyjohnsongallery.com, or visit  www.hollyjohnsongallery.com.

Image: Tommy Fitzpatrick, Aluminaire, 2022, Acrylic & oil on canvas, 24 1/2 x 18 inches