Whitney Biennial 2017
Mar 17–June 11, 2017
Torey Thornton
57
Floor 5
Born 1990 in Macon, GA
Lives in Brooklyn, NY
Torey Thornton employs an eclectic range of materials in his work, adopting a collage-like approach that reflects an expanded conception of painting. Occasionally incorporating fragments of plastic or wood, Thornton populates his paintings on panel with a mix of ambiguous forms, frenetic drawing, and cartoonish objects, all suspended within a purposefully indeterminate pictorial space. When hung on a wall, Thornton’s work hovers between painting and sculpture, and also alludes to ideas about intimacy, gender, and the body.
First Cynthia, 2014
Torey Thornton (b. 1990), First Cynthia, 2014. Acrylic, spraypaint, oil pastel, and charcoal on wood, 54 x 47½ in. (137.2 x 120.6 cm). Courtesy the artist and Moran Bondaroff Gallery, Los Angeles. Photograph by Cooper Dodds