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JEREMY THOMAS: Implements
August 8 - September 1
Opening Reception,
August
8, Friday 5-7 p.m.
And, at the PROJECT SPACE, Saturday, August 9,
2-4 p.m. |
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Spend some time with any number of
sculptures by Jeremy Thomas and one begins to see everything in
them. The pieces lend themselves to adjectives, to similes, to
theoretical leaps. Solid as they are they still seem to rest at some
ineffable point between chance and intention, lighthearted and serious,
feminine and masculine. With their brilliant colors from a child’s
paint box they look like toys scattered across the floor. With their
smooth soft surfaces, dimples, and surprising curves they are highly
erotic. Thomas’ work contains paradox. His
sculptures are made of steel, cut, welded, and folded into geometrical
shapes. The metal is heated to well over 2,000 degrees at which point
the metal becomes as supple and elastic as clay. Thomas then inflates
the forms with air (here chance comes into action as metal and air
interact). The final pieces are powder-coated in slick colors from
industrial tractor, lawn-mower, and implement manufacturers that contrast
with the surface of suede-like rust patina that Thomas adds to one or
more side of each piece. Many of the new pieces, using implement
colors, hang on the wall and have taken on a more functional form which
again teases at the idea of form, object, utility, and metaphor. The
end results are seductive works that call out to be touched. Although there are many ideas and
theories that can be explored in discussing these objects: alchemy and
the elements (these are mixtures of all four—earth, air, fire, and
water), their play on desire as non-gender-specific, the ironic use of
industrial tractor colors on sensual organic forms, Thomas believes that
ideas and theories come after the fact. As he says, “Art making is a
happy medium between play and reason.” His own background perhaps adds to the
balance of simple complexity found in his work. Thomas has been making
art since he was a kid, in a multiplicity of mediums including
printmaking, drawing, and painting. The story of how he came to
sculpture is just as rich as his works—after a year at the College of
Santa Fe studying painting he was moving out of the dorms and left his
box of paints and brushes out by his car. They were stolen. The next
semester he took a sculpture class and never looked back. As filled to
the brim with art history and theory as any modern artist, it is life
rather than theory Thomas says, that ultimately influences his work.
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MAIN GALLERY:


HALLWAY:
GALLERY II:

Various Titles, forged mild steel and powder coat, dimensions vary
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Charlotte Jackson Fine Art, Contemporary American and European Art