January 2025 Exhibit
Aaron Murray
Breadcrumbs
January 11 – February 3
We are excited to be presenting the first solo exhibition for Astoria based painter and tattoo artist, Aaron Toledo. Toledo who relocated to Astoria in 1999 from Kansas City owns and operates Keepsake Tattoo, our neighbors here on 11th Street. His intimate figurative oil paintings explore the relationship between people and the space they occupy. With a muted palette over vibrant color, he builds layers to construct dynamic composition, letting remnant of underpainting show through, much like the imprint of life experiences on an individual. He brings moody and gestural content, through glimpses into people’s personal world, a direct look at reality of moment and fleeting honestly of contemplation. Stop in to meet Aaron who will be available to answer questions about his new series Breadcrumbs, during Astoria’s Artwalk, Saturday, January 11th from 5 – 8 pm. The exhibition will remain on view through February 3.
For several years running, Aaron Toledo’s portraiture work has been included to Imogen’s annual invitational portraiture exhibition, Facing You. His distinctive style has over the years become quite respected by art enthusiasts and collectors. His focus on subject matter has always been humanity, from the daily trivial moments of everyday living to the grander moments of life but always from a perspective of a candid and unobtrusive portrayal. His small scale and intimate oil paintings explore the relationship between people and the space they occupy, “zooming in on moments as if they are memories, exploiting the perceptions that energize these small captures of time”.
As a non-academic artist his education and career in art has been far from traditional. Utilizing his skill with rendering through ink on skin, his painting style has evolved to gestural nuance, sometimes obscured and distorted, leaving behind the exacting line element of his first career as a tattoo artist. About this series he states: “Breadcrumbs, my cumulative work from 2024, invites us to share our experience of simply being present and alive with what we know at any given moment. It was intentional in the work to show layers. Often, I tinted the supports in bright colors, painting over the high chroma in muted tones. Purposefully leaving behind small glimpses of the under painting. Others were glazed with higher chromatic colors over the earthy underpainting. Something we notice, something that pulls us, something that we don’t know exactly what it is but we can’t ignore. At times it beholds us swiftly and others it’s barely noticeable but lingering and builds eventually becoming part of us, if we listen.”
Aaron Murray
Breadcrumbs
January 11 – February 3
We are excited to be presenting the first solo exhibition for Astoria based painter and tattoo artist, Aaron Toledo. Toledo who relocated to Astoria in 1999 from Kansas City owns and operates Keepsake Tattoo, our neighbors here on 11th Street. His intimate figurative oil paintings explore the relationship between people and the space they occupy. With a muted palette over vibrant color, he builds layers to construct dynamic composition, letting remnant of underpainting show through, much like the imprint of life experiences on an individual. He brings moody and gestural content, through glimpses into people’s personal world, a direct look at reality of moment and fleeting honestly of contemplation. Stop in to meet Aaron who will be available to answer questions about his new series Breadcrumbs, during Astoria’s Artwalk, Saturday, January 11th from 5 – 8 pm. The exhibition will remain on view through February 3.
For several years running, Aaron Toledo’s portraiture work has been included to Imogen’s annual invitational portraiture exhibition, Facing You. His distinctive style has over the years become quite respected by art enthusiasts and collectors. His focus on subject matter has always been humanity, from the daily trivial moments of everyday living to the grander moments of life but always from a perspective of a candid and unobtrusive portrayal. His small scale and intimate oil paintings explore the relationship between people and the space they occupy, “zooming in on moments as if they are memories, exploiting the perceptions that energize these small captures of time”.
As a non-academic artist his education and career in art has been far from traditional. Utilizing his skill with rendering through ink on skin, his painting style has evolved to gestural nuance, sometimes obscured and distorted, leaving behind the exacting line element of his first career as a tattoo artist. About this series he states: “Breadcrumbs, my cumulative work from 2024, invites us to share our experience of simply being present and alive with what we know at any given moment. It was intentional in the work to show layers. Often, I tinted the supports in bright colors, painting over the high chroma in muted tones. Purposefully leaving behind small glimpses of the under painting. Others were glazed with higher chromatic colors over the earthy underpainting. Something we notice, something that pulls us, something that we don’t know exactly what it is but we can’t ignore. At times it beholds us swiftly and others it’s barely noticeable but lingering and builds eventually becoming part of us, if we listen.”
