Alteronce Gumby, Bruckner Boogie-Woogie, 2019, Tempered glass & acrylic on wood, 48 x 48 inches
Who: The Bronx-based artist, born in 1985, is showing new abstract works that transform fragments of colored glass into terrazzo panels that explore identity and how people rebuild their lives after traumatic events. Named after jazz compositions, Gumby’s iridescent wall pieces pack plenty of what auctioneers call wall power. The young artist brings something new to the party thrown by similar artists, such as Jack Whitten, Sam Gilliam, and Robert Rauschenberg.
On View: FALSE FLAG at the Sunday Art Fair
Based in: New York
Why You Should Pay Attention: Trained as a painter, Gumby found his voice in glass. Like Rauschenberg when he spotted the potential of rubber tires, Gumby’s turning point came after he saw a smashed bus shelter near his studio in the Bronx. After earning his MFA at Yale, Gumby undertook a year-long residency at the Fondation des États-Unis in Paris via a summer residency at the the Camden Arts Centre in London. He has also hung out at Captiva in Florida on a Rauschenberg fellowship. The artist Rashid Johnson included Gumby’s work in the 2017 group show “For Color” and other recent group shows include “Abstract, Representational, and so forth,” at Gladstone Gallery in New York this past summer.