Tell Me Something Back is a solo exhibition of acrylic and collage work by artist Tom Brydelsky, and includes three distinct series – collage, ribbons, and swatches. Each series has its own language but shares a common relationship to the external world and draws from the artist’s interest in color and experience. Brydelsky has an open-ended dialogue with each canvas. These works are, in essence, an emptying of the self. The artist states “I put something down and I’m asking it to tell me something back. And once I get that answer, then it leads to the next thing. Whatever it is.” The artist remains open to the ongoing potential of this valuable interplay between his self, the canvas, and the external world. During each interaction between self-canvas-world, Brydelsky proceeds delicately, placing a collage element, a color, or a brushstroke, then scrutinizing the reaction. “Do the colors vibrate,” he says, “do they work together, do they not. If they don’t, then they get wiped out and I put another one there. It’s a constant push and pull. How the colors are reacting. And then how the overall piece is working.” Each painting in Tell Me Something Back provides possibilities for viewers to reflect on their own reactions to color and shape. Each work is a glimpse, a very immediate glance into who the artist is, and how his experiences, his thoughts, his feelings all get projected against a painted and collaged surface. In conjunction with the exhibition, Gallery North will host Paint & Paper, a collage and painting workshop led by the artist, in the Studio at Gallery North. Gallery North will also host an ArTalk with Tom Brydelsky. This exhibition is generously sponsored by The Michael and Ronne Cosel Foundation, bld Architecture, Jefferson’s Ferry, and Suffolk County’s Department of Economic Development and Planning. The exhibition, reception, and ArTalk will all be free and open to the public. Information on registering for the collage and painting workshop can be found at gallerynorth.org.

Based on Long Island, Tom Brydelsky received his BFA from Empire State College CUNY and attended the Art Students League from 1977 to 1981. His artwork has appeared in numerous publications and televised features on art and home décor, and the artist was awarded a Pollock-Krasner Foundation grant in 2017. Brydelsky is also a seasoned museum educator, having served at many notable New York institutions including the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, The Queens Museum of Art, The Hecksher Museum of Art and the Parrish Art Museum. His artwork has been exhibited in many group and solo exhibitions in the US and Europe, and is included in prominent public and private collections including the Ben Shahn Center Galleries, William Paterson University, and the Hecksher Museum of Art.