Tony J. - artist

Born in New Haven, CT on Feb 7th 1975. Graduated with a BFA in Illustration from the extremely small Paier College of Art in Hamden, CT in 1997. At age 12, my parents had some comic books they let me read. Sad Sack, MAD Magazine, R. Crumb and Horror comics. Few years later I became a big fan of The Far Side and Calvin And Hobbes. Nowadays for comics it's Daniel Clowes, Julie Doucett, Chester Brown

, Charles Burns and Kyle Baker. For fine artists: Vasily Kandinsky, Van Gogh, Francis Bacon, Basil Gogos, Mark Ryden and Shag. A year before graduation, I began freelancing as a muralist and a graphic designs for major corporations such as Corona Beer, Wrigley, Hasbro Toy Company, Yale University, The Peabody Museum of Natural History, Dark Horse Publishing and others places as well with some full-time jobs as an art teacher and a photo lab technician during the days of negative film. In 2000, I started working on a series of paintings called Mocking The Masters which depicts famous works of art that I turn them into comical parodies. Example, Leonardo da Vinci's painting of the Mona Lisa. I painted all the features of the original painting but I replaced the head with Yoda's head and on the bottom of a painting is written Yoda Lisa in a painterly style of a single-panel comic. My parodied are not an insult, just another way to look at them. Some of the other artist I've done are Edvard Munch, Frida Kahlo, Vincent Van Gogh, Andy Warhol and many others. Besides selling my original art I also sell magnets, comic books and other merchandise which is all available in my store page right here oktony.com/store.html Here is a short list of some past exhibitions. Franconia Sculpture Park (Shafer, MN)
AZ Gallery/Burl Gallery (Saint Paul, MN)
Monmouth Museum (Lincroft, NJ)
The Walker (Liverpool, UK)
John Slade Ely House (New Haven, CT)
Hygienic Art Gallery (New London, CT)
CBGB's 313 Gallery (New York, NY)
La Viande (London, UK)
Limner Gallery (New York, NY)
Culture Cache (San Francisco, CA)
Gallery 1988 (Los Angeles, CA)
l'art Noir New Orleans (New Orleans, LA)
DeCordova Museum (Lincoln, MA)
MoCCA Museum Of Comics and Cartoon Art (New York, NY). Some publications that featured my art were Juxtapoz, ISM Quarterly, The Stuckist Punk Victorian, The Book of Spam, Direct Art, Funky Garbage and Art Buzz. I've received a numerous of awards, citations and grants for my art and projects. Other projects are my creation of a combo circus and animation festival called Forgot To Laugh: Sideshow And Animation Festival. Where there is live performances such as contortionists, yo-yo performers, burlesque and more. From local acts to world renowned performers like The Great Throwdini, Big Nazo and Jonathan Burns. Then in between each act, I will have 3 to 4 animated shorts fom such artists as Bill Plympton, Nina Paley, Happy Tree Friends and many others. From time to time I also make short videos and films under the name Dr. Wildé. Noir, erotic with a sick sense of humor. Some of my short films are Like A Velvet Glove Cast In Iron, Counting Sheep, Rose and Sonny. I don't do painting/drawing for commissions anymore but I will do murals as long as I can keep them in my style. I currently reside in St. Paul, Minnesota with my wife Monica Shushelnycky, our cats Church and Willow and the 8 foot cyborg gorilla that lurks in our backyard.