Paragons of cultural identity receive the exacting, raptured attention their classic status merits when their image is rendered via the talents of Neil J. Farkas. Icons, folk idols, national and world symbols that have transcended social or anthropomorphic norms are revitalized and reexamined on a human level through his extractions of their pure aesthetic potential.

The Florida and New Jersey-based Farkas has exhibited extensively in the Midwestern United States, including showings at the Scarab Club of Detroit; Art Space Gallery of Birmingham, Michigan: Lawrence Street Gallery of Pontiac, Michigan and the Detroit Institute of Art. Among many other sites, his work has also been exhibited at Open Space Gallery of New York City. He has recently completed a commissioned project for the National Baseball Hall of Fame. More recently, Farkas' image "One Flag" was acquired by the Smithsonian Institution and exhibited in the "September 11" exhibition at the institution's National Museum of American History.

Commenting on his own work Neil says, "As a product of America's turbulent 60's, it is no surprise that much of my work examines the Pop Art movement, perhaps pushing it forward with new digital technology. My technique is called "photo-synthesis." I see myself as a photo realist by definition. Principally, I work with the tools of the digital age; however I deliver my work in the traditional means of lithography and serigraphy, sometimes combining both mediums within the same print."

Farkas uses tiny tiles of other photographically based images as a proxy for brush-strokes to create and model his larger subject. On closer inspection, the entire image he depicts dissolves and leaves the viewer engrossed in a myriad of tiny tiles of individual scenes adhering to the picture surface.

One cannot help as well, contemplating the meaning of his selection of the individual images in relation to the meaning of the subject he portrays.

COLLECTIONS

National Museum of American History Smithsonian Institutes, Washington D.C.

Portland Art Museum (Portland, Oregon)

Detroit Historical Museum (Detroit, Michigan).

Leepa Rattner Museum, FL

New York City Public Library, Main Branch

Collier County Public Library, Naples, Florida

Detroit Institute of Arts

Detroit Historical Museum

Kresge Art Museum, Michigan State University, East Lansing, Michigan

Museum of Fine Arts, St. Petersburg, Florida

National Baseball Hall of Fame, Cooperstown, New York

Sugden Community Theatre, Naples, Florida

The Von Liebig Art Center, Naples, Florida