Tom Ortega, AZ

For Tom, every day in the studio is an opportunity to learn something. It’s a chance to experiment and play. Anything he learns, he can use again. So, each piece informs the next.

Tom’s process reflects a passage of time. There are layers of ghosted images. Rubbings taken from one painting and added to another. He sands the wood surfaces. Pulls them apart. And puts them back again. Each piece lives a life before it is complete.

Over the years, his work has evolved beyond the flat surface. Tom is now also working in three-dimensional compositions. This has expanded his vocabulary and helped to push his two-dimensional work. Most recently, he has been casting his dimensional pieces in bronze.

Tom’s art is part of many private, public and corporate collections. Most recently he was added to the Polsinelli collection and was featured in the Microdwell exhibition at the historic Shemer Art Center in Phoenix. Tom’s work was also selected for inclusion in The Family Fang, the new Nicole Kidman movie, recently filmed in New York.

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