THE WEIGHT OF COLORS

SOLO EXHIBITION
AMY TALLUTO

OCTOBER 24-NOVEMBER 22, 2026

OPENING RECEPTION: SATURDAY, OCTOBER 24, 6-8PM

ARTIST TALK & WALKTHROUGH: SUNDAY, OCTOBER 25, 1-3PM

I make paintings and sculptures that are populated by symbols and characters that I allow to mix freely between the works.

Core characters include: 1) A tree with a single knot as eye/mouth, which I consider a watching figure, sometimes stiff or sometimes elastic, sometimes shown as just the head;  2) a figure called a “Blockhead” often contorted into crouches and pliés, splayed or stacked like architecture, and 3) The eyes in a well-known Ingres painting “The Princesse de Broglie” that remind me of my mother.

The Surrealist poet, Pierre Reverdy, once wrote: "The image is a pure creation of the mind. It cannot be born from a comparison but from a juxtaposition of two more or less distant realities. The more the relationship between the two juxtaposed realities is distant and true, the stronger the image will be — the greater its emotional power and poetic reality..." ("Nord-Sud," 1918)

Reverdy's fascinating yet quintessentially surrealist notion of finding meaning in the merger of several wildly different things is an idea that inspires me to populate my paintings with several of my own "distant and true" characters. To me, surprise is the prize, and I am interested in how new meanings can come from an absence of conscious intention. Like finding a face in the clouds, I like the idea that there are processes at work that can't be understood.” —Amy Talluto, 2026

The Middle Room is proud to present The Weight of Colors, the debut Los Angeles solo exhibition by painter and sculptor Amy Talluto. On view from October 24 – November 22, 2026, an opening reception will be held on Saturday, October 24, from 6–8 PM, followed by an Artist Talk and Walkthrough the next afternoon on Sunday, October 25, from 1–3 PM. Having previously exhibited in two group shows, Talluto returns to The Middle Room for this milestone exhibition, presenting a new body of work that blends her surreal iconography and personal motifs across oil paintings, ceramic sculptures, and works on paper.

The Weight of Colors presents a psychological landscape populated by an enigmatic personal lexicon. Giving tangible shape to the subconscious, Talluto constructs a narrative universe composed of memories and archetypes. Her vocabulary of repeating, waiting, and watching figures and fragments functions as emotional proxies—bridging personal history with collective mystery. Talluto’s work centers on looking and being looked at, capturing a secret vitality through a cast of spirited, melancholic and uncanny characters in imagined spaces that balance the lighthearted with the quiet gravity of the unknown.

Amy Talluto is a painter and sculptor who lives and works in Hurley, New York. She was born in New Orleans, LA and earned her BFA from Washington University in St. Louis and her MFA from the School of Visual Arts in New York. In 2018 she was awarded a NYFA/NYSCA Artist Fellowship in Painting and was an Artforum Critics Pick for her solo exhibition at Black & White Gallery (Brooklyn). She has recently collaborated on a ballet for CounterPointe12 with Norte Maar (Brooklyn) and shown her work at Auxier Kline Gallery, Jeff Bailey Gallery, The Berkshire Botanical Garden, the Samuel Dorsky Museum, Geoffrey Young Gallery, The Albany Airport and Wave Hill Gardens. She has been an Artist in Residence at MacDowell (NH), the Saltonstall Foundation (NY), Ucross Foundation (WY), Provincetown Dune Shacks & the Byrdcliffe Colony (NY). She is the host and producer of the Pep Talks for Artists Podcast.

The opening reception and artist talk and walkthrough are open to the public. The artist will be in attendance. For press and sales inquiries, appointments, previews, or a checklist of the artwork, contact info@TheMiddleRoomGallery.com.

The Middle Room is open by appointment and on Saturdays and Sundays from 1-3pm while the exhibition is on view.