John Torreano's exhibition at Carl Solway Gallery will feature a selection of work created between 1987 and 2012. He is best known for incorporating faceted gem forms in many mediums including painting, sculpture and printmaking. The gems may be three-dimensional and free-standing or they may be relief objects imbedded in painted wooden panels, thus combining two-dimensional and three-dimensional pictorial space. The gems in these often large-scale panels and sculptural columns form galaxy-like constellations. Torreano's titles often refer to actual galaxies in outer space and ongoing discoveries in astronomy. He states that his art exists between complete abstraction and realistic depiction of the world around him.

John Torreano has lived and worked in New York City for 40 years. He was born in Flint, Michigan and attended the Cranbrook Academy of Art and the Ohio State University. His work has been exhibited at the Whitney Museum of Art and the Museum of Modern Art in New York; the Museum of Contemporary Art in Chicago; the Corcoran Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C.; and the Indianapolis Museum of Art. He has taught at New York University since 1992 and currently serves as Director of the M.F.A. in Studio Art Program. In 2007 he authored Drawing by Seeing, a book of perceptual drawing exercises for the beginning and advanced artist. Prior to teaching at N.Y.U., he acted as visiting artist or artist-in-residence in nearly every art school in the United States. His awards include grants from the National Endowment for the Arts, the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation and the Nancy Graves Foundation.