Heights Artist Featured at Downtown Gallery Through Jan. 19

If Cleveland Heights residents take a trip to the William Busta Gallery in the next month, they'll find the reflective artwork of one of their neighbors.

The gallery, at 2731 Prospect Ave., will host Thomas Frontini's "Eremite: Views and Visitors" exhibit through Jan. 19. "Eremite" consists of paintings that mostly feature animals and landscape scenes in order to depict moments of meditation and contemplation.

Frontini's résumé includes exhibits at the Museum of Contemporary Art Cleveland and galleries in Los Angeles, New York, Toronto and more, dating back to the early '90s. However, he still gets a rush from the idea of art lovers checking out his work.

"It never gets old," Frontini said. "I really feel like I'm only at the beginning or middle part of my career.

"It's always exciting to get into another gallery. This will be my first show in Cleveland in a while, so it's very important."

The show at William Busta Gallery features 36 of Frontini's new oil paintings that range from 5 by 7 inches to 6 by 9 feet. He said he made these paintings, each focusing on an animal, as metaphors for artists who occasionally need to go into solitude to create their work.

"The viewer's engaged in a way with the idea that these are solitary subjects that you're observing — a hermit or somebody retreating from society to contemplate nature or life," he said. "It's almost autobiographical. I was reflecting on what the tradition of the artist is ... I separate myself, too. Not that I'm a hermit, but that's the way I work."

William Busta Gallery is open from 11 a.m. to 5:30 p.m., Tuesday-Saturday. Frontini will be at the gallery from 2 to 4 p.m. on Jan. 5.