(born August 7, 1941)
California artist Tony Berlant is best known for his painterly collages and metal cubes. He broke into the art scene after winning the Los Angeles Contemporary Art Council’s New Talent Purchase Award in 1964. Berlant began to collage while studying art at the University of California, Los Angeles, where he received his BA, MA, and MFA. He did not work with metal, however, until he happened upon a mound of tin advertising signs while living in Venice Beach. He then began to incorporate patterned metal into his work, experimenting with the boundaries of his material by manipulating it until it no longer had any connection to its previous form. In 1964, Berlant created his first cube sculpture, which has since become one of his signature forms. In the late 1980s, his work shifted away from three-dimensional forms to elaborate collages that resemble paintings. Berlant currently resides in Santa Monica with his family and continues to create intricate, painterly pieces.