Looking at his art, it is certain that he will ‘shake things up a bit.’ His large canvases are filled with angular lines and bright colors. He has used tables, chairs and doorways as his visually identifiable subject matter for the past eight years. The real subjects of the paintings, however, are not the tables, windows and doorways, but the painting itself and the process of creating it.

Sarah Taft - Catskill Mountain Guide read the full review here


Touhey's work is both ambitious from an artist's perspective and challenging from the viewers. His images are rooted in awareness of architectural space and classical still life, as well as a passion for expressionist painting. The pictures are inherently abstact, both flat and dimensional at the same time. They present a collision between line and color, fragmented yet whole. His choices of color "character" and juxtaposition are electric, which charges the pictures with energy. Touhey also effectively manipulates volume and scale of objects to further enhance illusion and provoke the imagination of the viewer.
In the words of the artist, "My work should speak for itself. If you develop an experience as you encounter the artwork, then it is owned by you. However, I do ask the question what is energy within space and objects, as related within the moment of time and change?"

August 5, 2005
Visual Quest Brings Catskills Artist to the Hudson Valley
September 12 – October 30th, 2005 @ Class of 1929 Gallery, West Point

Opening reception: September 25th at 3:30PM

West Point, NY – Starting in September, the Eisenhower Hall Theatre and the Class of 1929 Gallery will present an exhibition spotlighting upstate New York abstract artist Timothy Touhey. The show featuring bold canvases and sculptures by Touhey will run from September 12 through October 30th and can be viewed at the Class of 1929 Gallery which also affords magnificent Hudson River views seldom seen by visitors to West Point. The opening reception, on September 25th at 3:30 PM, coincides with the Sunday with Friends musical performance at Eisenhower Hall. The exhibit and reception are free.

According to Touhey, “From an early age, I knew art would be my life and consuming passion. At age 13, I earned my first paycheck doing illustrations. Despite a number of detours, I’ve continuously grown and intensified the focus on my personal path as an artist. As my understanding of art evolved through my studio work, an understanding of artists throughout history, and my studies at the School of Visual Arts, I realized the concept of art has many levels and directions. I began to find my path as a serious artist. I found that art equals energy in its creation or birth and that a work of art, when experienced for the first time, may evoke an internal and even cellular response, as well as an intellectual one.

In 1996, re-dedicating my life to my art, I began an eight -year study, a self- imposed challenge to expand my ‘visual equation’ by working with the basic linear elements of tables, chairs and doorways. I could focus on the fundamentals of art: color, structure, composition, surface relationships, as well as movement and foreground. As a result, I attained new levels of understanding and ability. Before this ‘study’, I felt that I really didn’t have any unique subject that I could sink my teeth into, so to speak. Now, several years after emerging from that structure, my art has taken the direction of color and form with no limitations.

The relationship and energy of color and form are the catalysts for my visual quest. I don’t seek a conclusion, but an attempt to have a relationship with an ongoing moment of possibility.”

Press on Timothy Touhey
“Looking at his art, it is certain that he will ‘shake things up a bit.’ His large canvases are filled with angular lines and bright colors. He has used tables, chairs and doorways as his visually identifiable subject matter for the past eight years. The real subjects of the paintings, however, are not the tables, windows and doorways, but the painting itself and the process of creating it.”
Sarah Taft - Catskill Mountain Guide, 2002

“Touhey is the quintessential expressionist, with boundless energy and determination.”
Bill Yost – West Point Cultural Arts Director, 2005

Works in the show include 28 new oil pastels hand framed by Touhey as well as his marble sculptures and bronze editions, and large-scale oil paintings. Touhey owns and directs The Gallery in Stamford, NY which he founded in 2002.