Luis Tomasello

The Mayor Gallery is hosting an exhibition of works by Argentinean born artist Luis Tomasello, with his first solo exhibition in the UK. Tomasello, a leading representative of Latin American Kinetic art, worked extensively in Paris from the late 1950s onwards exhibiting with Galerie Denise René, alongside Victor Vasarely and Jesús Rafael Soto.

Born in La Plata in 1915, Tomasello studied at the Academy of Fine Arts in Buenos Aires, and began as a Concrete artist, looking to Mondrian for inspiration. It was after settling in Paris in 1957, however, that he began working in relief, moving away from the linear nature of geometric abstraction, directing his interest to form and colour effects: ‘I went to relief as an experience and in that process, I discovered the wonderful world of light. The reflection of color on the surface fascinated me and that is what I’ve worked in from that time on.’ (A Conversation With Francesca Bellini Joseph, Literal Magazine, Autumn 2009)

Tomasello is most famed for his Atmosphère Chromoplastique works, where white cubes with painted undersides are arranged at varying angles onto a white surface. This results in subtle reflections of coloured light, and an optical sensation of movement. He manages to put the emphasis on the coloured reflections, and limit the geometric aspect to the introduction of simplified forms. It was Tomasello’s decision to pass from painting to sculpture that allowed him to overcome the linear aspect of abstraction, and focus on form and colour effects. Later on in his career, this allowed environmental and architectural applications for his work.

Tomasello has been involved with the following international exhibitions: the landmark show ‘La Lumiere et Mouvement’ at the Musée d’Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris, in 1967 as well as the Museo Español de Arte Contemporáneo, Madrid in 1985. He has also realised a certain number of architectural projects such as Chromoplastique Mural installed in 1971 at the façade of the San Pedro Edifice in Guadalajara, Mexico. There followed an Environment for the Conference Hall of the Renault factory at Boulogne-Billancourt near Paris, 1975 among other architectural projects.

The exhibition at The Mayor Gallery reviews Tomasello’s Atmosphère Chromoplastique works from the 1960s to date and will feature 3 of his Lumière Noire series (his experiments with black on black) as well as 4 Objet Plastique.

Luis Tomasello