Tony Berlant was born in New York City in 1941. He received his Bachelor of Arts in 1961, a Masters of Arts in Painting in 1962 and a Masters of Fine Arts in Sculpture in 1963 from the University of California, LA.
Berlant’s work is formed exclusively with found and fabricated pieces of tin signage, TV trays, cookie boxes and other metal objects. These are then cut, folded and fastened to their plywood support with steel nails that stud the surfaces. This constitutes a kind of pointillism that adds further texture to what is already a dense, complex picture plane. Although Berlant’s work has its roots in assemblage, it does not incorporate the traditional collage technique where the viewer can see the source of the material. Rather, he allows the individual metal pieces to function like brush strokes, ironically resulting in a quilt-like lyrical composition that utilizes and transforms the found colours and patterns.
“There is a delight that you can go out and pick up discredited materials and make something precious out of them…this involves the illusion that the materials become something else rather than staying true to their origins.” -Tony Berlant
