TONI PUTNAM

PORTALS LTD

CHICAGO

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TONI PUTNAM

Toni Putnam was born in Boston. She started out as a painter and then became a printmaker, showing with the AAA Gallery in New York City. Working predominantly in bronze, she developed techniques for welding sheet copper. She is widely known for her experience and knowledge in the application of patina surfaces and has frequently given lectures on the subject. She co-founded Talliz Art Foundry in Beacon, NY where she was both a principal and worker for twenty years.

Toni Putman makes bronze dance. She infuses the air within and around the metal elements with energy as real and crisp as the curving sinuous shapes themselves. Her aesthetic forms convey both an ancient and new quality. The images derive from her contemplation of timeless myths.

Putnam brings to these pieces her extraordinary sense of modulated surface and the alchemical ability to transform stodgy bronze patina into her own sultry spectrum of colors. There is also a sense of very serious play, with no tinge of the morose or ponderous; her pieces are playful but not silly.

The images emanate freshness, directness, and indelibility, making them leap out to the viewer. The forms are refined to their natural simplicity, but they are never static or mundane. Most interesting is the way that Putnam’s works insinuate themselves into the spectator’s memory with iconic clarity and precision.

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