Nick Ferruso: Old Growth, New Roots

September 6-28, 2024
Nick Ferruso: Old Growth, New Roots
Opening reception: Friday, September 6, 5:00-9:00 PM
Gallery hours: Monday-Friday, 9:00 AM – 5:00 PM; Saturday, 10:00 AM – 1:00 PM

Nick Ferruso uses his canvas to capture an intimate moment in nature. His paintings are unique slices of time: rejuvenating, uplifting and personal. Most feature familiar nature scenes from in and around Knoxville that viewers will find recognizable. From afar, their realism fools the eye, so much so they could be mistaken for photographs. But up close, the paintings become effectively abstract with colored splotches and overlapping palette knife work that is messy and even a bit chaotic. Engagement with the paintings from both distances is a part of the discovery viewers make for each scene.

Nick Ferruso was born and raised in Vienna, West Virginia, where the natural landscape lives up to the state motto of “Wild and Wonderful”. The youngest of four children, he always loved drawing and painting, and after high school attended Colombus College of Art and Design. Although his first love was fine art, he pursued a BFA in Advertising and Graphic Design and spent the next 20 years as a Graphic Designer, working in New York City, Saint Petersburg, Florida, and finally settling in Knoxville to work for the former Scripps Networks. There he met and married his wife Anna, became a father of two boys, and made it through one company merger, only to be laid off after ten years with the company. This forced career shift presented an opportunity, and with encouragement from his wife, he decided that instead of pursuing another design job, he would, for the first time in his life, officially shift his focus to painting. He has since begun a reawakening of his creative self and is showing his two young children that art is a gift and it is worth pursuing.

Instagram @nickferruso
www.ferrusos.com