Auguste Garufi: An Introduction

Auguste Garufi was born in Utica, New York. He has a studio in Brooklyn, New York, where he works daily.

Garufi's work is historically rooted on many levels. Several formal influences are detectable in his paintings and sculptures, some of which unexpected and idiosyncratic and thereby particularly interesting. These influences fuse in a uniquely personal contemporary style which is tinged with nostalgia. In his beautiful and moving sculptures, for example, the roughness of the formal details and textures is used to achieve impressionistic effects of light and shadow, creating an emotional impact similar to the sculptures of Medardo Rosso. At the same time, Garufi often repeats several times the same sculptural element in his installations - joined hands, for example - borrowing a strategy typical of minimalist artists. In this way, by combining elements apparently antithetic, he creates a new way of experiencing the single artwork.
(Marcello Marvelli, Marvelli Gallery, New York, 2004)

Auguste's work speaks to the world, and to the history of the world. His work speaks also to itself, in the sense that one work informs the next in a subtle way; it does not progress in a strictly linear fashion. Rather it spirals and loops, reconsiders a theme in a new light and therefore moves forward elliptically. His work honors the sacred in the mundane-- bird bones and feathers, fruit and figures. His landscapes lack the frivolity of modern-day conveniences. You won't find cars, trucks, telephones, typewriters or even buildings in most of his work. Garufi is an anomolay among American artists-- he is a true original. His work has gorgeous pigments, and delicate washes. It is too abstract for the new realists, and far too real for the new expressionists and post-expressionists. Garufi is untroubled and untainted by isms. His work extends into the space between God's hand and Adam in the famous painting-- the space of blue sky between.
(Liz Rosenberg, 2004)

On the canvas and in the resin, shapes appear like precious finds that have been worn by currents, winds, sand, and that reach us after life's shipwrecks; they have recovered their essence, the simulacrum of life itself.
(Sylvia Venuti, Courriere dell'Arte, 2001)