Tommy Fitzpatrick has long had a fascination with how buildings are made. Growing up in the Dallas suburbs, the downtown urban environment became a magnet. ‘I’ve always liked modernism and Bauhaus, and found that urban areas had a similar quality of newness and futurism,’ he tells Wallpaper*.
An exhibition of new paintings, titled ‘Site’, at Qualia Contemporary Art in Palo Alto, California, marks a departure in Fitzpatrick’s conventional approach: instead of painting from life or photographs, he turned to computer-aided design (CAD) software to create renderings that he then translated into paint. ‘When it comes to architecture, I often find myself loving the renderings more than buildings themselves; they’re a proposition of the fact,’ he explains.
In 1998, Fitzpatrick assisted American minimalist artist Frank Stella with a mural installation in Houston. The experience had a deep impact on Fitzpatrick and encouraged him to transition from smooth, seamless compositions to geometric, electric-hued explosions.
Above: Tommy Fitzpatrick, Sino. Below: Compound, both 2021
Fitzpatrick is drawn to buildings both for their ephemerality and longevity, particularly modernist architecture that once heralded a better society. The artist has also explored architectural projects that never came to be; his 2017 series Crystal Cities was inspired by Frank Lloyd Wright’s unrealised Washington, DC project of the same name.
Fitzpatrick’s paintings present both the ruins and utopian potential of his subjects, and a record of past ideals. ‘Things come and go, that is reflected in our architecture’, he says. ‘Buildings that were once a remarkable feat of their time go out of style and are knocked down for the latest innovations. But there seems to be a quality within certain buildings and landmarks that acts as a universal commonality.’
His works almost sculptural in depth, Fitzpatrick stretches his architectural subjects to their abstracted extremities. What might have been roofs, windows, glass and steel fracture into shards of impastoed ambiguity.
Tommy Fitzpatrick, Victoria, 2021
The artist's fascination with architecture and construction extends to his tools, materials and processes. Fitzpatrick begins by pouring acrylic paint onto the canvas in a similar manner to how cement is poured to make brutalist buildings. He uses tools one might find on a building site, like concrete placers and trowels, to concoct and cut through congealed slabs of paint. The painted surface protrudes like a relief to such an extent that its peaks cast their own shadows.
Fitzpatrick structures his paintings like an architect plans a building: the foundation, the frame, and the exterior. ‘When you look at the painted surface you can tell how the paint was laid down in my work. It’s a frozen human moment; suspending action in one image.’
Tommy Fitzpatrick, Geomorphic, 2020
Tommy Fitzpatrick, Villa, 2021
Tommy Fitzpatrick, Tower, 2020
Tommy Fitzpatrick, Monument, 2020
INFORMATION
Tommy Fitzpatrick: ‘Site’ 10 April-28 May 2021, Qualia Contemporary Art
qualiacontemporaryart.com
tommyfitzpatrick.com
ADDRESS
328 University Ave
Palo Alto, CA 94301
-
These vintage Arne Jacobsen desks and chairs are the perfect back-to-school inspirationOriginally designed by Jacobsen for Denmark’s Munkegaard School in 1956, these desks and chairs are now available from Sigmar, the London modernist design store
-
As climate disasters increase, can architecture respond? Kon-tigo, a post-hurricane Acapulco house design, shows us howKon-tigo is a housing project by Manuel Cervantes Estudio, which creates bioclimatic homes that address climate disasters and inequalities in Acapulco, Mexico
-
Silvia Venturini Fendi on luxury, lineage and looking to the future: ‘If it reminds me of something we’ve already done, we move on’As Fendi kicks off its centenary year, Wallpaper* fashion features editor Jack Moss meets its third-generation artistic director, Silvia Venturini Fendi, in Rome to discuss a life in style
-
The spread of Butter: the Black-owned art fair where artists see all the profitsThe Indianapolis -based art fair is known for bringing Black art to the forefront. Venturing out of state to make its Los Angeles debut we speak with founders Mali and Alan Bacon to find out more
-
Steve Martin wants you to visit The Frick CollectionThe actor has appeared in a video promoting New York’s newly renovated art museum
-
Rolf Sachs’ largest exhibition to date, ‘Be-rühren’, is a playful study of touchA collection of over 150 of Rolf Sachs’ works speaks to his preoccupation with transforming everyday objects to create art that is sensory – both emotionally and physically
-
Architect Erin Besler is reframing the American tradition of barn raisingAt Art Omi sculpture and architecture park, NY, Besler turns barn raising into an inclusive project that challenges conventional notions of architecture
-
The dynamic young gallerists reinvigorating America's art scene'Hugging has replaced air kissing' in this new wave of galleries with craft and community at their core
-
Meet the New York-based artists destabilising the boundaries of societyA new show in London presents seven young New York-based artists who are pushing against the borders between refined aesthetics and primal materiality
-
After decades capturing the world’s fashion-set, photographer Johnny Rozsa picks up a paint brushIn his first exhibition of paintings, the New York-based artist celebrates the vibrancy of Tangier while rediscovering a familiar creative outlet
-
Leila Bartell’s cloudscapes are breezily distorted, a response to an evermore digital world‘Memory Fields’ is the London-based artist’s solo exhibition at Tristan Hoare Gallery (until 25 July 2025)
