The Visit: Tim Tozer

Tozer returns to the figure in his newest body of work. Inspired by memories of his home along the coast of England, Tozer’s paintings capture the vitality, unpredictability and energy of life along a shoreline.

Tim Tozer’s compositions capture figures along the water’s edge – among windy grasses and sandy dunes, in parking areas along the beach, perched on rocky shorelines and concrete walls. His characters are often exposed to the elements, revealed in near nakedness as they change their clothes or attempt to tame a billowing towel in the shoreline wind. Disguised by planes of light and shadow, the exposed bathers create an impression of vulnerability. They depict an inherent tension within human-to-human and human-to-nature relationships. The rhythm of Tozer’s forms, his bright palette and active brushwork give his paintings a theatrical feeling. While the images are intentionally specific, the narration is deliberately ambiguous. Tozer explains:

Although these paintings are, in a way, an attempt to connect to a sense of home, they are not bound to one specific locale or personal experience; rather, through making them, I search for a configuration of spaces, light and placement that resonate with something I cannot describe in any other way. I have to start with people and places I know from my own life in order to do this, but it is only when the work departs from these that the paintings have the ability to connect directly to the impulses that drive them.

Born in Portsmouth, UK, Tozer attended the Winchester School of Art and the University of Ulster at Belfast, Northern Ireland. Tozer moved to the U.S. in 1994 when he received the prestigious Andy Warhol Scholarship for study at the New York Academy of Art. After earning his MFA in painting, Tozer taught painting and drawing at Indiana University in Bloomington. He moved to Minneapolis in 2002 and currently teaches painting at the University of Wisconsin-Stout.

The artist will be present at the opening reception on Friday, September 11, 5-8 p.m. This exhibition runs concurrently with Unmade City, an exhibition of new paintings by Rod Massey in the main gallery. Both exhibitions continue through October 17.

Image Credit: Tim Tozer "Unfurnished Sky" Oil On Canvas - 2015