The Gallery at Flashpoint’s 2008-09 Season Opening with Anthony Cervino

Get a bit of culture into your ever busy life by attending The Gallery at Flashpoint’s Season Opening Reception on Friday September 5th from 6-8pm.  Thanks to Cara Pomponio at the Cultural Development Corporation for getting this press release over to the Punch:

WASHINGTON, DC –The Gallery at Flashpoint is pleased to launch its 2008-2009 season with Anthony Cervino’s Anti-Plastic, the artist’s first solo exhibition in Washington, DC. Cervino transforms the parts taken from toy model kits, in concert with plastic resin and paints, to construct low-relief sculptures on canvas. Situated somewhere between wall sculptures and paintings, these chromatically reductive works are evocative of architectural structures, disaster scenes and abstract landscapes. Opening Friday, September 5, Anti-Plastic, comments on mass production, consumption and various acts of assembly.

The sculptures in Anti-Plastic are typified by three-dimensional compositions painted a uniform gray that appear to float in lightly-tinted color fields. Many of the individual components are recognizable as scraps of toys or the wiry, plastic structures typically used to contain the parts of pre-assembled model kits, such as planes or cars. Since the sculptures are wall-based and affixed to a two-dimensional surface, the viewer approaches them like a painting and the compositions thus suggest an aerial perspective. This bird’s-eye view implies a reading of the works as abstracted landscapes and perhaps more ominously, as sites of crashes, floods or warfare. Each of the sculptures is constructed with a strong sense of predetermined arrangement, but is also positively reactive to the fluidity and plasticity of the materials. In creating the works, Cervino carefully balances rigorous attention to a structured composition with a playful, but threateningly destructive element of chance provided by the liquid plastic poured onto the canvases.

The formal qualities of the work in Anti-Plastic reveal Cervino’s technical focus. Conceptually, his painting-cum-sculptures examine art historical precedents, consumer culture and current events, as well as notions of structure, identity and memory.

Anthony Cervino: Anti-Plastic
Opening Reception: Friday, September 5: 6-8pm

Exhibition: September 5 – October 11, 2008
Gallery Hours: Tuesday – Saturday, 12-6 pm or by appointment
For more information: Call 202.315.1310 or visit www.flashpointdc.org

ABOUT THE ARTIST
Without actually ever completing a store-bought toy model, Anthony Cervino received his MFA in sculpture from Towson University in 2003. He has exhibited widely in the Mid-Atlantic region and is an Assistant Professor of Studio Art at Dickinson College in Carlisle, Pennsylvania. Formerly a Gallery at Flashpoint advisory panelist (in 2005), Cervino is pleased to now experience the gallery as an exhibitor. For more information please visit www.anthonycervino.com.

ABOUT THE GALLERY AT FLASHPOINT PROGRAM
The Gallery at Flashpoint is dedicated to nurturing artists, expanding their visibility and encouraging dialogue between artists and arts patrons. As a nonprofit gallery, Flashpoint provides a special opportunity for artists and curators to present new media, site-specific installations, performance pieces and other experimental forms free from the constraints of commercial expectations. An advisory panel of noted artists and arts professionals oversees the programming for the gallery and provides mentorship and support to exhibiting artists. The Gallery at Flashpoint is sponsored by Michael Abrams, the Abrams Family Foundation and the DC Commission on the Arts & Humanities. Additional support is provided by the Morris & Gwendolyn Cafritz Foundation, The Community Foundation for the National Capital Region, the MARPAT Foundation, the Eugene & Agnes E. Meyer Foundation, the National Endowment for the Arts, Prince Charitable Trusts, the Summit Fund and many other sponsors. Hotel Helix is Flashpoint’s 2008-2009 Hotel Partner. Barefoot Wine is Flashpoint’s 2008-2009 Wine Partner.

ABOUT FLASHPOINT
Flashpoint, a Cultural Development Corporation project, is a non-profit, multi-disciplinary arts space dedicated to nurturing emerging artists and cultural organizations in order to build their professional capacity. Flashpoint provides services and training for cultural organizations to help strengthen their management capacity and offers exhibit and performance spaces that enable arts groups to focus on their artistic goals and expand their visibility. Flashpoint includes a contemporary art gallery, the 75-seat Mead Theatre Lab, the Coors Dance Studio and shared office space for arts organizations.