"Art for Guys" takes a unique approach at photography, with the male perspective in mind.
By: Josh Appelbaum
Beer bottles in a shower rack, a succession of cheeseburgers, and a motif of coffee and cigarettes are just some of what Plainsboro artist Rico Telofski’s photo manipulations depict in his exhibit this month at the Gourgaud Gallery.
"Art for Guys," according to Mr. Telofski, is a collection of pieces that uses objects attractive to men such as women’s thong underwear, high-heeled shoes and myriad alcoholic beverages placed in the foreground with a manipulated background, using bold colors that make the artwork more akin to illustrations than photographs.
Mr. Telofski said making art that is accessible to men wasn’t his modus operandi it just turned out that way. He said all his pieces grow out of ideas he gets from television, movies, conversations he has with friends and his own imagination.
"I’ve done a number of shows, and it turned out that people my own age, men 30 to 50 years old, were buying my pieces or women were buying the photographs for their boyfriends or husbands they really identify with the work," Mr. Telofski said.
Exhibited at the Voorhees Gallery in Red Bank, the Classic Design Gallery in Maplewood as well as national shows at the Maryland Federation of Art and the New Jersey Center for Visual Arts, Mr. Telofski’s artworks are influenced by his background in business, marketing and commercial photography.
Using 120-speed 35 mm film, Mr. Telofski shoots objects in his Plainsboro studio headquarters for his commercial and art photography outlet Kahuna Content Company and illustrates them, digitally crops things like trademarks and labels, and adjusts light and contrast using Adobe Photoshop and Illustrator. He said his type of art is the opposite of photo-realism, which employs nature and romanticism.
Each piece takes between 16 to 24 hours to complete, aside from the conceptual planning time, according to Mr. Telofski. He said every piece is better than the last.
"Each one gets closer to the picture I have in my mind of what it should be," Mr. Telofski said.
Hailing from Roselle Park, Mr. Telofski attended Rutgers University, where he served as photography editor for the Douglass College yearbook and majored in communications. Upon his graduation, he entered the business field and earned a master’s degree in marketing and formed a marketing consulting firm, which he dissolved about three years ago, to devote more time to his art.
This model of "starting over" after a corporate business career and starting a new business is captured in Mr. Telofski’s pet project "Conehenge," which tells the autobiographical story of "Jersey schlub" Roger Kruger a character of his own creation in comics, posters and T-shirts.
Roger’s business is constructing promotional roadside stands with an ice cream cone theme. Mr. Telofski’s life experiences and a trip to the grocery store were the inspiration for the strip.
"My wife and I were shopping at McCaffrey’s and I saw a display of ice cream cones, and I got this idea of cones protruding from a hedge, hence "Conehenge." Mr. Telofski said.
For all of the pieces dealing with popular art objects, there also are pieces that deal with people and animals, but use accents with lots of color and verve.
"4 Friends," a photo art illustration depicting a young man in Trafalgar Square in London with three pigeons perched on his shoulders, is highly contrasted with color accents.
"I try to create motion through layering techniques. The pants and jacket are high contrast to the shirt, which is a bright red. And then I created a pattern, with yellow at the edges to keep the viewer’s eyes from drifting, to keep the attention in the shot," Mr. Telofski said.
"Art for Guys" will begin its exhibition with a First Friday reception tonight (Friday) at 6 p.m. and will run through Sunday, Jan. 30. Gallery hours are Monday through Friday 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. and Sundays from noon to 3 p.m. Refreshments will be served at tonight’s reception.