Chuck Tomaselli
Biography
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Statement
C. Lewis Tomaselli Architects is a recognized Architectural Firm providing architectural and engineering services in the Central New York Region for more than 45 years. Chuck Tomaselli is the Principal Architect of C. Lewis Tomaselli Architects, which he founded after leaving the partnership off Stetson, Armstrong, Reeves, and Tomaselli in 1973. C. Lewis Tomaselli Architects’ base of operation is in the heart of Utica’s historic district, giving us a centralized location for projects throughout the New York State while demonstrating our commitment to the City of Utica as a base of business.
While C. Lewis Tomaselli Architects prides itself on being a “traditional” architect’s office in its approach to its work, our firm utilizes state of the art drawing software and word processing packages for all of our projects. All personnel, including Mr. Tomaselli, are computer literate as well as highly trained in manual graphic skills. The knowledgeable use of the appropriate documentation technology allows for innovative and expeditious design solutions and project communications.
C. Lewis Tomaselli Architects is very proud of the fact that through the years we have been involved in a wide range of projects from multi-million dollar industrial office, education and residential projects to small private commercial buildings and private residences. Obtaining experience in these various fields has allowed our Firm to broaden its’ base and create a diverse clientele. CLT Architects is proud of the part we have played in bringing this historic and rich architectural area back to a safe and productive community.
In order to follow through on our commitment to provide our clients professional and cost effective services, CLT Architects has developed ongoing relationships with associated individuals and firms in the Central New York area to augment our own in house staff resources providing an extensive range of services, including Civil and Structural Engineering, Interior Design and Landscape Design, all under the license and insurance umbrella of C. Lewis Tomaselli Architects and our local office.
Testing the Waters
Video-still, 2024
(Excerpts from College of St. Rose Press Release , January 2016)
Knecht has been active in making experimental and avant-garde film and video since the 1970s. His films, animated videos and multiple channel installations, paintings and drawings are informed by his rural Midwestern, evangelical upbringing in the 1950s. They reveal a fascination with unknown, imagined spaces that exist outside of our rational, physical world. Most of his better known work is animated, including The Possible Fog of Heaven and The Poxiox Series. The artist explains, “Welcome to my world. You enter at your own responsibility. I am providing the material for provocation. I am not providing the answers.”
Knecht’s films, videos and multiple channel installations have been shown all over the world. Recent exhibitions include: Considering the Probability of Divine Intervention, a five-channel installation at the Llewellyn Gallery, Alfred State College, Alfred, New York; Fragments from the Wheels of Ezekiel, a 15-channel installation at the Everson Museum, Syracuse, New York, now installed (in part) in the permanent collection of the Munson-Williams-Proctor Arts Institute, Utica, New York; The Urban Video Project, sponsored by Syracuse University, Light Works Gallery and the Everson Museum; Fragments from the Wheels of Ezekiel, Clifford Gallery, Colgate University, Hamilton, New York; First Person Cinema series, University of Colorado, Boulder, Colorado; Making Movies, Schweinfurth Memorial Art Center, Auburn, New York; The @ LAB, Ohio University, Athens, Ohio; Tou Scene Contemporary Art Center, Stavanger, Norway; Vienna Film Festival, Bard College, Annandale-on-Hudson, New York; Mix Festival, New York City.
Knecht’s works are held in the collections of the Munson-Williams-Proctor Arts Institute, The Queens Museum, California Institute of the Arts and more. Awards include New Forms, Rockefeller Foundation and the National Endowment of the Arts; Jerome Foundation; New York Foundation for the Arts, Artists Fellowship.
Recently retired, Knecht holds the Russell Colgate Distinguished University Professor of Art & Art History and Film & Media Studies, Emeritus at Colgate University. He held the chair in media studies at Colgate, where he taught since 1981. In addition, he served as chair of the Art and Art History Department from 1991 to 1999.
The artist also taught in the Semiotics Department at Brown University in 1980 as a visiting lecturer. He served as assistant professor in the School of Art at the University of Oklahoma from 1974 to 1978. From 1980 to 1982, he served as a member of the executive committee at the Collective for Living Cinema in New York. Knecht was a member of the board of governors of the National Conference on Undergraduate Research from 1993 to 1999.
Knecht holds a master of fine arts degree from Idaho State University and a bachelor’s degree from the University of Wisconsin at Oshkosh. He served in Vietnam with the U.S. Army’s Ninth Infantry Division from 1967 to 1968.
Knecht lives and works in Hubbardsville, New York. For more about the artist, visit www.johnknechtart.com.