Thomas Ferrella is a former emergency medicine physician who worked for 30 years as a trauma specialist. Now a Wisconsin-based multimedia artist, Ferrella has exhibited many well-received projects. He has received multiple Wisconsin grants for his public art installations and uses his work to comment and respond to social and environmental causes. His photographic work documenting Chicago murder sites titled NOT FORGOTTEN: Chicago Street Memorials was shown at the Gage Gallery in Chicago and was endorsed by Time as a “…you can’t miss” photographic show for 2016. Last fall he had a solo show in Camaguey, Cuba titled 1 Mundo. This body of work deconstructs the boundaries of sex, race and age and explores a vision for a unified world. Recently he participated in a portal discussion in Milwaukee with genocide survivors in Kigali, Rwanda as part of a Carl Wilken’s Fellowship titled #togetherweremember, using images from his outdoor installation, BLACK HAWK YAHARA: A River of Tears that references the Native American genocide that occurred in this country. Most recently his 25-year project documenting roadside memorials in Wisconsin, NOT FORGOTTEN: Wisconsin Roadside Memorials, has been showcased on NBC, Wisconsin Public Radio, Arts+Literature Laboratory, Wisconsin Peoples and Places Magazine and is now being catalogued by the Wisconsin Historical Society.
Thomas Ferrella
Statement
Exploration is the simplest way to assay my work.
I speculate in a variety of artistic mediums, conceptualizing a piece or body of work based on visual clues and their subsequent sensory perception. The material often guides the message, and in this way can be seen as a vessel for the purpose the work ultimately serves. Photography has been the foundation though I willfully stray into music, video, painting, large scale installations, sculpting in wood and found objects. Common threads exist though I consider those irrelevant. My aesthetic is a natural abstraction, a graphic documentation, a personal dialogue, an invitation to poetry.
PLAN YOUR VISIT
Arts + Literature Laboratory is located at 111 S. Livingston Street #100, Madison, Wisconsin, 53703.
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