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Home » News » Alum Toni Ardizzone Featured in Tallahassee Magazine

Alum Toni Ardizzone Featured in Tallahassee Magazine

Published September 17, 2020

FSU Art MFA ’20 Toni Ardizzone is featured in the September-October 2020 issue of Tallahassee Magazine for her recently commissioned 32-foot mural, Dinosaur of the South, lovingly dubbed “Wally Gator,” at the UnVacant Lot in Thomasville, Georgia. Ardizzone’s recent contribution to this once dilapidated plot of weeds turned outdoor art forum is the aftereffect of her successful exhibition held last December at the Thomasville Center for the Arts.

In the article written by Steve Bornhoft, Ardizzone credits “the members of her thesis committee: Mark Messersmith, Lilian Garcia-Roig and Carrie Ann Beade, who introduced her work to folks in Thomasville.” She also provides insight to her artistic process commenting, “Painting on a large scale is really a whole different thing… I tend to work in what most people would describe as freehand. I don’t usually use a projector. I’ll just have a couple of images printed out on regular 8½ by 11 paper or I may have them on my phone, and I just go for it. So, the way I work takes a lot of backing up and inspecting my progress and making sure that the scale is in proportion.” For the full article click here.

Ms. Ardizzone is a painter combining refined methods with a blue-collar skill set to create large-scale assemblages and tactile paintings. She received her BFA from Indiana University at Herron School of Art and Design in 2006. The driving idea behind her work is death within life, constructed through a humanist lens. Her prolific body of work has led to several solo exhibitions across the United States as well as international recognition. In 2019, she was selected for two artist residencies including Ayatana in Quebec, Canada and the Palimpsest Project in Buenos Aires, Argentina. She has recently been invited to exhibit along with four other artists, including FSU Art MFA ’20 Caroline Ennis, at Mercer University in Macon, Georgia, opening October 30, 2020. As well, Ms. Ardizzone is a selected artist for the Thomasville Wildlife Festival—a juried mural competition—opening November 6, 2020. She will be painting five murals.

To discover more about Ardizzone’s fresh and intoxicating work visit http://www.toniardizzone.com or find her on Instagram @toniardizzoneart.