Fred Tomaselli’s work reveals a uniquely American vision. Growing up in Southern California, he was influenced by both the manufactured unreality of theme parks and the music and drug countercultures of Los Angeles during the 1970s and 80s. His distinctive melding of these traditions coalesces in an updated, personalized, folk-driven vision of the American West. Tomaselli amasses pills, herbs and other drugs, along with images of plants, flowers, birds, and anatomical illustrations carefully cut from books. Pulling from this visual archive, Tomaselli creates baroque paintings that draw upon a range of art historical sources and decorative traditions—like quilts and mosaics. Combining these unusual materials and paint under layers of clear epoxy resin, Tomaselli’s paintings explode in mesmerizing patterns that appear to grow organically across his compositions in a multilayered coexistence of the real, the photographic, and the painterly.

Friends for nearly three decades, in 2009 Zuckerman organized a major exhibition of Tomaselli’s work that traveled to two venues including the Brooklyn Museum. In this episode he and she talk about being shaped by cars, surfing, Disneyland and Orange County in general, their shared love of nature, losing yourself in music, mind altering substances and experiences, The New York Times and current events!

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