11/5/2014
November / December 2014 - The Grad Program I went through at School of Visual Arts here in NYC is having it's mega-30-year anniversary this month - Marshall Arisman's "MFA Illustration As Visual Essay", and my work is included! The show is called "We Tell Stories", and it's on display at SVA's big Westside Chelsea Gallery space on the 15th Floor of the Starrett-Lehigh Building (601 West 26th Street in between 11th/12th Aves) from now until December 17th, 2014. It's a huge show of work by over 350 Artists, and my painting "Ricardo with Tree" is reproduced on the wall in the 4th room, and there's a hardcover book accompanying the show available at the gallery desk in which they reproduced my "Nando - Rooftop" painting on page 119. The Alumni opening was last night, (quite a fun Event!), and the opening for the public will be next week, Tues., Nov. 11th from 6-8PM. I will be there in case you can stop by & say Hi!! (Click on the Image above to be linked to SVA's website info about the Event).
10/1/2014
October 2014 - Very pleased to find out that my 2002 painting of Barney Frank, which was donated to the Leslie Lohman Museum of Gay and Lesbian Art by Collector Earl Carlile, is now on traveling loan to the Manhattan Office of NY State Senator Brad Hoylman !! Pictured are Hoylman and the Lohman Museum Director Hunter O'Hanian. Many thanks to all that made this happen !!
9/10/2014
September 2014 - I have a painting featured in another group show at The National Arts Club on Gramercy Park again (the second show there this year)! This one is called "Meeting Mythology: An Eternal Source", curated by Robert Yahner. I am included among 4 Contemporary Artists in the show who have Mythological themes in their work (my painting "Mike With Skull" from 2011 can be seen as a re-telling of the Hades Myth). The rest of the art from this show is from the Club's impressive collection (there is even a Picasso Drawing of a Satyr - yep, I'm in a show with Picasso! LOL). The show runs til Sept 29th, 2014, and the National Arts Club is at 15 Gramercy Park South (a.k.a. West 20th St in between Park Ave & Irving Place. It's open to the public every Monday through Friday from 10AM-5PM and the show is in the lower level gallery. Come see it if you can! (Click the image to be linked to N.A.C.'s website & Gallery calendar).
7/11/2014
July 2014 - This is my donation to next week's Housing Works' Soho Thrift Shop's "Art for Action Gallery Night", organized by Scooter LaForge and Johnny Rozsa - a life drawing of Dan Paul putting on his sneakers :) The Event is Thursday, July 17th from 6-8PM at 130 Crosby Street just below Houston, and all work is for sale to benefit Housing Works. This is the piece, and a view of it in the brown frame I have it in - come by Thursday to see it, as well as all the other wonderful artists on display! Click the image to be linked to the Housing Works' site's listing of the Event
7/3/2014
July 2014 - My 2011 painting "Bound Confederate Soldier" was just curated into a Visual AIDS online exhibition called "Secretly, Frequently Secretly, Frequently (Cowboy Drag)" by Canadian curator Anthony Easton! He chose a really fun selection of images from the VA Archives and wrote a great essay, click on the image to be linked to it :)
6/9/2014
June 2014 - Very happy, my "contributor copy" of the new Hardcover Coffeetable Art Book compilation from Bruno Gmunder arrived this weekend, and it looks great !! It's called "Raunch" (initially I think it was going to be called "Scruff" but I assume there were problems since that name's taken, lol). It's a gorgeous book, full color with 160 pages, and a forward by the legendary artist Robert W Richards, and they reproduced four of my sexiest paintings to date. Thanks to Harvey Redding for encouraging me to submit, to Ronny Matthez for making it happen, and to the models in the artwork, Eric Rose van Doorne, Isauro Cairo and Ricardo Suarez. Also to Michael Mut and Leslie-Lohman Museum of Gay and Lesbian Art for letting me show the actual artwork in their galleries. You can purchase the book direct from the publisher here: http://www.brunogmuender.com/products/details/id/8672_Raunch/ , (or click the image to be linked to that page) - or on Amazon... and Barnes & Noble in Union Square said they can order it. Get your copy today! Lol
6/5/2014
June 2014 - The wonderful artist/designer/curator Aaron Tilford used a quote ascribed to Tallulah Bankhead in a conversation to Bea Arthur in the 1950's as a springboard for his latest curatorial effort - a Visual AIDS 'Web Gallery" online exhibition called "Eyes, Lilacs & Spunk: Queer Aesthetic from Suggestion into Abstraction" - and he included my 2012 painting "Abandoned Capote House" among it's 18 images. Click the image to be linked to his beautiful essay and choices from the Visual AIDS Web Archive, which is where you can see my painting of that abandoned house in the Pines just before you hit the Meatrack (actually called the Carrington House, where it's told the owner let Truman Capote stay there in the 1950's and where it is rumored he wrote the novel "Breakfast at Tiffany's").
5/27/2014
May / June 2014 - The excellent AIDS activism organization "Health GAP/Global Access Project" asked me if I would donate a piece to their Silent Art Auction/Global Health Justice Awards Ceremony - and they chose this life drawing I did, called "Doug, Standing, Backside". Here it is, with a pic of it in it's frame, it's 16" by 12", Color Pencil on Toned Paper, 2010, and it's in a nice Beige Frame with a White Matte. You can view the Auction online at: http://healthgap.org/ghj-art/ or by clicking on the image - other notable artists in the auction include Mark Beard, Marcelo Maia, & Carmine Santaniello. My drawing was from a great session with the sexy & talented Doug Repetti in a session at the Leslie-Lohman Museum of Gay and Lesbian Art's Drawing group. Bids for my piece start at $100. and can be made with HealthGAP's Jennifer Flynn at jflynn@healthgap.org up until the Event, or in person at the Event next Tuesday, June 3rd at 6:30 at Judson Memorial Church, 55 Washington Sq South. Event tickets are a suggested $100. - but it's "pay what you wish" - no one will be turned away if you just want to come and see the art - so please come & stop by next week!
3/31/2014
April, May 2014 - An exciting group show for me to be included in is the now-on-display group exhibition called "Arbor Day - A Celebration in Art" at NYC's famed "National Arts Club" at 15 Gramercy Park South (also East 20th St) in between Park Ave & Irving Place! Curator Robert Yahner has selected two of my paintings that include trees, and I am one of seven Guest Artists (also including Enrique Martinez Celaya and Albert Velasco) that are shown with works from the club's permanent collection - from some amazing pieces by Jane Wilson and Everett Raymond Kinstler, Will Barnet the legend who passed away in 2012 - and many artworks from the late 19th and early 20th century. The show is open seven days a week from 10AM to 5PM, tell the security guards you want to see the Arbor Day show in the lower level Marquis and Trask Galleries. Click on the image above ("Summer Harmony" by John Scott Williams, c.1945) to be linked to the N.A.C. website's Exhibitions Calendar. It will be on display through May 10, 2014 - go check it out if you are able!
3/22/2014
MARCH 2014 - So happy to have a Feature article with a slideshow of 25 artworks profiled on Advocate.com this month! Wonderfully written and curated by Here Media's Arts Editor Christopher Kit Harrity, it is an honor to get the kind of national (& international) attention that this respected publication receives. Click on the photo to be linked to it!
3/10/2014
March/April 2014 - Some cool news, I will be in a group show at the famous "National Arts Club" on Gramercy Park at the end of the month and into April! It will be a show called "Arbor Day" and it will have artists -- some Historic New Yorkers from their collection and others alive & currently working --who have tree imagery in their artwork. The Curator of the show is Robert Yahner and he has selected two pieces of mine - I will post more about it soon when I have more details -- but in the meantime, click on the photo to be linked to check out info on the Historic Institution that is the National Arts Club :)
2/9/2014
February 2014 - I'm grateful to be a part of a beautiful book project by artist/photographer/designer Charlie Welch called "Ship To Shore"! Welch says "I asked friends, who also asked friends, to submit imagery about the sea and left it open for interpretation". My 2012 painting "Fire Island Boardwalk, Ocean" is included. Also included are such artists as Meer Musa, Rick Herron, Aaron Krach, Tom Hill, John Paradiso and several others. Click on the Image to be linked to a Tumblr Blog with some of the images, but better yet, check out http://www.charliewelch.com/shiptoshore.html to be linked to his Etsy site to buy it for $10. !
2/4/2014
February 2014 - My gouache painting, "All Male Video" from 2011 was just chosen to be a part of this month's Visual AIDS web gallery, "I am my own Landscape", curated by Ivan Acebo-Choy. The show includes other artists such as David Wojnarowicz, Felix Gonzalez-Torres and Keith Haring. Acebo-Choy is completing his Doctorate in Art History at the University of Havana, Cuba. Click on the Image above to be linked to the show!
1/22/2014
January 24-26, 2014 - Hey folks - once again I am participating in the fantastic Event "Postcards from the Edge", the annual benefit exhibition & art sale for "Visual AIDS". I did another 4" by 6" (postcard-sized) painting that will go on display at the 'blue-chip' Luhring Augustine Gallery in West Chelsea this Friday at it's Preview Party, and then sales of the Postcards happen on Saturday & Sunday. Click the Invitation Image above to be linked to Visual AIDS's site for more info about the event - come and support it if you can!
1/17/2014
January 16, 2014 - I got an unexpected Press mention, "Ticketing Today"'s Karen F. McCarthy asked me about how artists use Social Media to promote their art, & of course I mentioned Facebook... here's the part she mentioned me:
"Artist George Towne updates his website and news and events blog for every upcoming show, and keeps images of his art in Facebook newsfeeds. His recent solo exhibition at the Michael Mut Project Space in New York generated such a large attendance in a small gallery that he described it as “a whirlwind evening … very fun, exciting and validating.”
Check out the whole article by clicking on the photo & you should be linked to it - its about the 7th paragraph down.
1/5/2014
January 2014 - Happy New Years everyone! Today (Jan. 5th) is the last day to go see the group show I'm in... it's called "Art & AIDS: Perceptions Of Life", the GMHC Art Show - at the Leslie Lohman Museum of Gay & Lesbian Art... 26 Wooster Street (just above Canal St.), NYC - open today from 12PM-6PM. It's a big group show with 48 artists, though somehow it doesn't feel too crowded. I am grateful to be represented well, with 4 paintings I'm proud of in it! Click the photo to be linked to Leslie Lohman's site - Event page info.
