The Visions of Fred Tomaselli
Review for The New York Times T Magazine, February 22, 2013
Courtesy James Cohan Gallery, New York/ShanghaiFred Tomaselli’s “Hang Over,” 2005, one of the artist’s collages that incorporates pharmaceutical pills. Another work by Tomaselli is for sale in the Paddle8 auction to benefit the Drug Policy Alliance.
EXCERPT
Among drug advocates, there are your average stoners and there are gurus who proselytize about consciousness-expanding substances — people like Timothy Leary, who was branded “the most dangerous man in America.” That label came from President Richard Nixon, whose “war on drugs” persists: in 2011, according to the Drug Policy Alliance, more than 1.5 million Americans were arrested on nonviolent drug charges.
Last week the D.P.A. and Paddle8, an online auction house, hosted a talk by the artist Fred Tomaselli. The event was linked to a Paddle8 sale, now accepting bids, that will benefit the D.P.A, and which features many artworks that visualize or allude to drug use. (The sale includes work by such artists as Louise Lawler, Chris Martin, Marilyn Minter and Swoon, and will end with a live auction on March 4 at C24 gallery in Chelsea.) Tomaselli, who contributed a piece, was a natural choice: his trippy paintings incorporating psychoactive substances have earned him a reputation as the art world’s “drug guy.”