The choice early in life to make abstract paintings is to undertake a rich journey, but one that is, more than not, solitary and accompanied by self-doubt.
Tom Quinlavin has been making abstract paintings in the expressionist genre as long as I’ve known him, which goes back to New York City around 1982.
From the time he finished his studies with Robert Yasuda at C.W. Post, Tom never looked toward academia for support, instead venturing on an independent course pushing his personal limits of freedom and excessiveness. Always sincere and full of conviction, Tom’s work relies on an energy of unknown fearlessness and chaos and ranged from bacchanalian-inspired gestures of recklessness to gestures of furious directional intensity.
With his recent work, his imagery continues to emerge with increasing focus, discrete edges and autonomous elemental shapes.
A quiet confidence has replaced the unbridled recklessness in his earlier work while the exuberance of color and materiality persist.
- Donald Alberti