July 01 – August 31, 2005

Opening reception: July 23, 6–8 pm

Artist Talk: Curator's talk at 6:30 pm

"Jim Torok paints and draws tiny portraits like a Northern Renaissance master. He is also a gifted cartoonist. On large sheets of paper he draws hilarious storyboard narratives about his life as an artist. It?s hard to say which are better, the apples or the oranges."
– Ken Johnson, The New York Times, November 8, 2002

Lora Reynolds Gallery is pleased to announce our first solo exhibition by Brooklyn artist, Jim Torok, entitled Artists are Great. The exhibition is curated by Glenn Fuhrman.

The exhibition will include six realist portraits in oil on board, a series of graphite portraits on paper, and humorous cartoon vignettes in ink on paper.

The artist spends hours photographing his subjects to obtain the source materials for his paintings. In composing the image, he selects the right eye from one shot, the mouth from another and so on. The final works are tiny, meticulously rendered, extraordinarily lifelike portraits on thick, block panels.

Jim Torok's second body of work on view includes pen and ink cartoons or storyboards. Executed with wit, honesty and ambivalence the drawings comment on the artist's struggles. Included are works such as, A Day in the Life of the Artist and Artists are Great.

In contrast to his portraits, the technique of the cartoon drawings is low-tech and "on the fly". His goal is to be as spontaneous as possible "starting with the title and then continuing one scene at a time until it is finished. There is no planning. It is like a part of the brain being freed up to just go. It's a way of not being too self-conscious" (Torok). Jim Torok was born in South Bend, Indiana in 1954. He currently lives in Williamsburg, Brooklyn with his wife, Mary Carlson. His work has been shown in numerous exhibitions nationally and has been acquired by museums including the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York.

Glenn Fuhrman is a frequent visitor to Austin and a current resident of New York City. He has been collecting contemporary art for over 15 years.