Exhibition at SECCA Shows Surrealism Is Alive and Well in the South
"The main drive behind the original Surrealists was the human imagination. Working with automatism, the building up of random shapes and the trompe-l'oeil representation of dream images, the Surrealists attempted to show the function of thought in the absence of logic and rationality. Since the movement's inception in the 1920's, much of the philosophy, poetry, fiction and visual art styles that followed were greatly influenced by the Surrealist agenda. Both Abstract Expressionism and Conceptualism borrowed from this ground-breaking moment in art history......
".....Tom Graffagnino's four small abstract pieces remind one of the chance manipulation of paint and the use of collage that Surrealism is associated with. The gouache acrylic and paper handling avoids a direct reference to any particular artist or "look", and Graffagnino's work is intimate and elegant in its contemporary feel....
"Artists in the show like Sullivan, Graffagnino, Belville and...Faccinto...make art that combines a Surrealist influence with contemporary concerns.....
Michael Klauke
Winston-Salem Journal
June, 1988