“Instrumentality” by Boston artist and experimental musician Jack Salvucci aka Tiefling was on view at Shoe Bones Gallery, 28 Boston St., Salem, from Sept. 2 to Oct. 5, 2025. The exhibition featured a figurative sculpture (holding a computer mouse), 13 oil on paper sigil paintings, each corresponding to a track on her new album, and digital projections.

“The sigils, a series of 13 small oil paintings on paper, are reminiscent of Forest Bess, and search through contemporary murkiness to find symbols to express not the hopeless solitude and existential confusion of the ‘50s, but the surrender to the dystopian digital gods of today,” the gallery’s website said.

Tiefling is “finding new icon grid paintings and a kind of godless digital god,” explained gallery director Frankie Symonds, who opened the gallery in February 2023.


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Tiefling aka Jack Salvucci's "Instrumentality" at Shoe Bones, Salem, September 2023. (Greg Cook photo)
Tiefling aka Jack Salvucci’s “Instrumentality” at Shoe Bones, Salem, September 2023. (Greg Cook photo)
Tiefling aka Jack Salvucci's "Instrumentality" at Shoe Bones, Salem, September 2023. (Greg Cook photo)
Tiefling aka Jack Salvucci’s “Instrumentality” at Shoe Bones, Salem, September 2023. (Greg Cook photo)
Tiefling aka Jack Salvucci's "Instrumentality" at Shoe Bones, Salem, September 2023. (Greg Cook photo)
Tiefling aka Jack Salvucci’s “Instrumentality” at Shoe Bones, Salem, September 2023. (Greg Cook photo)
Tiefling aka Jack Salvucci's "Instrumentality" at Shoe Bones, Salem, September 2023. (Greg Cook photo)
Tiefling aka Jack Salvucci’s “Instrumentality” at Shoe Bones, Salem, September 2023. (Greg Cook photo)
Tiefling aka Jack Salvucci's "Instrumentality" at Shoe Bones, Salem, September 2023. (Greg Cook photo)
Tiefling aka Jack Salvucci’s “Instrumentality” at Shoe Bones, Salem, September 2023. (Greg Cook photo)
Tiefling aka Jack Salvucci's "Instrumentality" at Shoe Bones, Salem, September 2023. (Greg Cook photo)
Tiefling aka Jack Salvucci’s “Instrumentality” at Shoe Bones, Salem, September 2023. (Greg Cook photo)
Tiefling aka Jack Salvucci's "Instrumentality" at Shoe Bones, Salem, September 2023. (Greg Cook photo)
Tiefling aka Jack Salvucci’s “Instrumentality” at Shoe Bones, Salem, September 2023. (Greg Cook photo)
Shoe Bones gallery director Frankie Symonds, September 2023. (Greg Cook photo)
Shoe Bones gallery director Frankie Symonds, September 2023. (Greg Cook photo)

Categories: Art