ARTIST STATEMENT
Toni Flynn attended the Art Students League in New York City, the storied institution where Jackson Pollack, Robert Rauschenberg, Alexander Calder, and Georgia O’Keefe studied. At the end of her ten years at the League, she won the prestigious Merit Prize. Before that Flynn studied Studio Art and Art History at Wellesley College.
Flynn’s earlier work includes portraits and landscapes as well as still lives. Now she works in the Abstract Expressionist tradition focusing on color and line, movement and quiet, light and dark. She plays with the separate elements, rearranging them until finding the balance she seeks. Sometimes the process takes weeks and months; sometimes it takes years.
“I work for months on the same painting, adding layers of color and shape until it looks complete. Then I wait. After days or weeks I look again with a fresh eye. I am looking for what is missing, where to add, where to simplify. Slowly the painting changes becoming more nuanced, more balanced.”
Earlier Flynn painted with water colors but predominantly with oil pigments. Now she prefers acrylic for its vibrancy and lightness. Through her painting she pays tribute to the painters Joan Mitchell, Willem de Kooning, and Cy Twombly.
Flynn has exhibited at Lincoln Center in New York, at the Katonah Museum, the Palm Springs Museum of Art and in Normandy, France.
EDUCATION/EXPERIENCE
1987-1997 the art students league of new york
Studied with Larry Poons, David Leffel, Peter Cox, Frank Mason, Harvey Dinnerstein, Irwin Greenberg
1995-1996 member of the board of control, The Art Students League of New York
1977-1979 the victor d’amico institute of art, Amagansett New York
1976-1979 WHITNEY MUSEUM OF AMERICAN ART, NEW YORK, Friends Council
wellesley college
bachelor of art in history of art
SELECTED EXHIBITS
SOLO SHOWS
2000 La Marie, Bonneville la Louvet, Calvados, France
GROUP SHOWS
2020 The phoenix project: an artist a day through the pandemic
An on-line International Exhibition of 100 artists curated by Tony Carretta
March – June
2019 KATONAH MUSEUM OF ART, KATONAH, NY
Artist Association
2019 PALM SPRINGS ART MUSEUM AT PALM DESERT, CALIFORNIA
Metamorphosis
2019 OPENING OF NEW WING, ARTS ON THE LAKE, KENT, NEW YORK
In Plain Sight
2017 PUTNAM ARTS COUNCIL, MAHOPAC, NEW YORK, Celebrating Women
2015 arts on the lake, kent, new york
A Little Madness In Spring
2010 arts on the lake, kent, new york, 17 Seconds
1997 Lake Carmel Art Association
1989-99 THE ART STUDENTS LEAGUE OF NEW YORK, Biannual Shows
1998 GUILD HALL, EAST HAMPTON, NEW YORK, Artists Members Exhibition
1997 Lincoln Center, The cork Gallery, New York
1962 group show, Wellesley college, Wellesley, Massachusetts
PUBLICATION
2019 IN PLAIN SIGHT, Catalogue, Arts on the Lake, Kent, New York
AWARDS
2010 best in show Putnam Arts Council, New York
Jurist: Neil Watson, Executive Director, Katonah Museum of Art and Artist Ray Smith
2009 THE ART STUDENTS LEAGUE OF NEW YORK
Merit Scholarship