Night Bird Flying

The Art of Timothy Cummings

Figurative painter Timothy Cummings has a wild fantasy life and a dark side. He is also one of the few enviable people who has known all of his life what his purpose is, and has been pursuing it like a heat-seeking missile since his childhood.

Cummings was born in Albuquerque, New Mexico and raised in the comfort of a highly supportive family. From early on, Cummings' mother actively fostered his individuality and facilitated the realization of his fantasies, whether doing so entailed providing the young Cummings with supplies to support his burgeoning artistic habits, or allowing him to wear a dress and play with dolls instead of playing football.

At school, however, Cummings' circumstances were far more frustrating. After struggling for years with feelings of alienation from his peers and the limitations of a structured education, Cummings dropped out of high school right before the end of his senior year, only to return at the insistence of administrators who promised him a full scholarship to art school if he complied with their request.

As an art school student, however, Cummings' discontent only increased, and after only 12 days of enrollment, he withdrew. As an alternate method of furthering his personal and intellectual development, Cummings became an autodidact who inundated himself with facts and ideas in order to familiarize himself with a variety of artistic techniques and movements. Cummings notes, "That was purely my education; I got all the information I could from the library, or from books I could find, or TV and old films."


An excerpt from an article in the Magazine JUXTAPOX by Annie Tucker

TIMOTHY CUMMINGS

Born in Albuquerque, New Mexico, 1968

SOLO EXHIBITIONS

2001 Catharine Clark Gallery, San Francisco

University of Massachusetts, Amherst

1999 "Masquerade," Catharine Clark Gallery, San Francisco

1998 "Auslander," Tenderloin Salon, Berlin

"Nocturnal Emissions," Catharine Clark Gallery, San Francisco

1997 Project Room Exhibition, Catharine Clark Gallery, San Francisco

1996 "Fragile Monsters, Cursed Children, Introductions '96," Catharine Clark Gallery, San Francisco

1995 Featured Artist, Wilkes Bashford Company, San Francisco Global 33, New York

1994 "Trespass," Show N Tell Gallery, San Francisco

1993 "Humor Show," Ochlschlaeger Gallery II, Sarasota, Florida

"Marionettes, Puppets an Paintings," Archive, San Franncisco

"The Nude: Classic and Erotic," Island Alternative Gallery, Albuquerque

1992 "Circus Saints and Other Curiosities," Six Gallery, Los Angeles

"Sign of the Cross," Jamison Thomas Gallery, Portland, Oregon

1989 "First Annual Fine Arts Exhibition," Jury Choice, Corrales, New Mexico

1988 Armoury of the Arts Gallery, Santa Fe, New Mexico

GROUP EXHIBITIONS

2001 "Storytellers: the Figure in Time and Place," San Francisco State University, California

1010 10th Anniversary Exhibition, Catharine Clark Gallery, San Francisco

2000 "Fantasies and Curiosities," The Art Museum, Florida International University, Miami

1999 "Collector-Curator," Catharine Clark Gallery, San Francisco

"Horror Show Part 2: Modern Grotesques," Belcher Studios Gallery, San Francisco

"Spinal Epidural, Please!," Catharine Clark Gallery, San Francisco

"Toys in Contemporary Art II," d.p. Fong Galleries, San Jose, California

1998 "Face," SOMAR Gallery, San Francisco

"Labyrinth," Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, San Francisco

1997 "Sex and SubversionŠForbidden Art in the 90's," Rita Dean Gallery, San Diego, California

"Three Painters," Space, San Francisco

1996 "Consumption," Catharine Clark Gallery, San Francisco

"99 Drawings," Webster Street Gallery, San Francisco

1995 "Art Crime/Where the Risks Are Real," Build, San Francisco

"Bias," Morphos Gallery, San Francisco

"Cyberstroika," Southern Exposure, San Francisco

"Diva," Collision Gallery, San Francisco

"Horror Show," Place Pigalle, San Francisco Magic Theater's Dog Opera, San Francisco, Lobby Exhibition

"Peace Art Show: Atomic Synthesis & Social Fallout from NM," South Broadway Cultural Center, Albuquerque, New Mexico

"Pop Holiday Jamboree," Bess cutler Gallery, New York

"Psychoanalysis and Art: The Re-Embody-Ment of Desire," SOMAR Gallery, San Francisco

"Seven: A Group Show," CCAC Myrtle Street Studios, Oakland, California

"Wild Side," LACE Gallery, Los Angeles 1994

"Barbie and Beyond," Morphos Gallery, San Francisco

"Bong," Alleged Gallery, New York

"Bong," Kiki Gallery, San Francisco

"Something for Everyone," Morphos Gallery, San Francisco

1993 "Sex Art 3," Mark Chester Gallery, San Francisco

1992 "Tres Pecadores Modernos," Elysium Gallery, Albuquerque

1989 First Annual Fine Arts Exhibition, Jury Choice, Corrales, New Mexico

1988 Armoury of the Arts Gallery, Santa Fe, New Mexico