September 2 - October 8, 2025
Reception: September 5, 5-7pm.
Rhino World Order features artwork by Buffalo resident, Richard Tomasello. Tomasello creates ceramic and plaster sculptures in large scale to talk about the power of individual resistance against overwhelming societal pressures. This new body of work is inspired by the play Rhinoceros, written in 1959 by absurdist playwright Eugene lonesco. The play is noted to be a response to the rise of fascism before WWII, using imagery of people turning into rhinoceroses as they are swept up into the fascist regime. One character in the play resists conforming at all costs to maintain his identity. Tomasello uses the imagery of the Rhinoceros to talk about his own experiences with physical assault, school shootings, mob mentality, toxic masculinity, the bystander effect, and systematic violence.
ARTIST STATEMENT
My work is influenced by the violence and voyeurism of the world. Gun violence and mass shootings have become commonplace in the United States. Lockdown drills practiced daily by American school children have become the norm. Cellphone technology allows us to capture and share violence in real time. For the last several years I have made large-scale plaster sculptures, built from cardboard and foam armatures, as well as slip-cast ceramic forms. I use plaster because it is strong yet also vulnerable and prone to cracking. My work depicts oppressive icons and also yearns for a more innocent past.
