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Mrs. A. W. West, Senior, graphite and conté pencil on paper, 2018. Image credit: Phillip Maisel
EXPO Chicago 2018
Rena Bransten Gallery | MAIN Booth 319
Navy Pier, Chicago
September 27th-30th
Mrs. A.W. West, Senior from Mugshot Portraits: Women of the Montgomery Bus Boycott, will be at EXPO Chicago with Rena Bransten Gallery alongside works by Dawoud Bey, Jonathan Calm, Oliver Jackson, and Vik Muniz.
Thank you Charles Desmarais for mentioning my work in the SF Chronicle.
“I had the opportunity last year to see, in process, some of the drawings to be included in this exhibition. During an open house at the Headlands Center for the Arts, where Thomas was an artist in residence last year, visitors crowded her studio. Their intent was to glimpse, unfinished, what promised to be powerful documents of a historic moment of effective resistance. This will be our first chance to see the artist’s completed tribute to the unsung church ladies, homemakers and local pillars of the community who became heroes on national scale.” —Charles Desmarais, The San Francisco Chronicle
Mugshot Portraits: Women of the Montgomery Bus Boycott is opening at Rena Bransten Gallery this Saturday, September 8th, from 5-7pm. The exhibition will be on view through October 27th.
Work in progress image of "Mugshot Portraits: Women of the Montgomery Bus Boycott" from my Fall 2017 Artist in Residence at the Headlands Center for the Arts. Image credit: John Janca
Image credit: Colson Griffith Photography
Thank you, Charles Desmarais, for featuring Resistance Reverb: Movements 1 & 2, in your review of Be Not Still, Part 2, at the di Rosa Center for Contemporary Art.
“Lava Thomas chose as her theme the idea of solidarity, producing a soundless tribute to music — a shower of red tambourines suspended from the ceiling — as a metaphor for community. The tambourine, a wall text points out, is an easily learned instrument that plays a part in the traditional music of numerous cultures around the world. Thomas lightly imposes a reference to her own African American heritage here and there, but keeps the whole an open-ended invitation to unity, as a wall of mirrored instruments incorporates the viewer, the room and, by extension, the world.” —Charles Desmarais, The San Francisco Chronicle
The exhibition will be on view through December 30.
Left to right: Koak, Indira Allegra, Dana Hemenway, Lava Thomas, K.R.M. Mooney.
It's an honor to be a finalist for the 2018 San Francisco Artadia Award with such great company--congratulations to the other four finalists: Koak, Indira Allegra, Dana Hemenway, and K.R.M. Mooney.
I'm excited to announce that the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts has acquired a collection of prints by the African American artists of Paulson Fontaine Press, including Ficticious Self-Portrait (2006) and Xavier (2006). Read more
Ficticious Self Portrait (2006)
Hardground etching on Somerset white textured paper
29.5" x 28"
Xavier (2006)
Hardground etching on Somerset white textured paper
29.5" x 28"
Detail of Pink Portrait (Self) on view at Rena Bransten Gallery through August 18th.
I have new work on view in The Portrait Show, a group exhibition exploring portraiture from traditional to non-traditional approaches in a range of media. This diverse grouping of works spans the humorous to the somber, nodding to the rich history of the portrait while aiming to expand its boundaries. The exhibition includes works by Robert Arneson, John Bankston, Dawoud Bey, Jonathan Calm, Lawrence Ferlinghetti, Rupert Garcia, Jennifer Greenburg, Leiko Ikemura, Oliver Lee Jackson, Erik Johnson, Arnold Kemp, Bovey Lee, David Linger, Hung Liu, Tracey Moffat, Martin Mull, Tameka Jenean Norris, Raymond Pettibon, Naaman Rosen, Thomas Ruff, Salomé, Amparo Sard, Peter Saul, Tracey Snelling, Kumie Tsuda, Tara Tucker, John Waters, Lewis Watts, and Henry Wessel, among others.
Read the press release here.
Detail of Resistance Reverb: Movements 1 & 2, on view at the di Rosa Center for Contemporary Art.
Please join me for the opening reception of "Be Not Still: Living in Uncertain Times" Part 2, at the di Rosa Center for Contemporary Art on Saturday, June 30th. The two part exhibition addresses concerns of our present social and political moment through newly commissioned works of art that engage audiences in ideas that matter. Other artists in the exhibition are Lexa Walsh, Ranu Mukherjee, and Victor Cartagena.
My work is included in Personal to Political: Celebrating the African American Artists of Paulson Fontaine Press, on view now through June 24th at the Bedford Gallery in Walnut Creek. The exhibition will travel nationally through 2021. Featuring Edgar Arceneaux, Radcliffe Bailey, McArthur Binion, Gee's Bend Quilters (Louisiana Bendolph, Mary Lee Bendolph, Loretta Bennett, Loretta Pettway), Lonnie Holley, David Huffman, Samuel Levi Jones, Kerry James Marshall, Martin Puryear, Gary Simmons, and yours truly.
Footage from the SAAM panel, Contemporary Artists in Conversation with History: 1968, is now available online. The event commemorated the 50th anniversary of the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr.
Watch it here and visit SAAM's video archive for more information.
Alfredo Jaar, SAAM Deputy Chief Curator E. Carmen Ramos, Lava Thomas, and Sam Gilliam. Photo © Bruce Guthrie
E. Carmen Ramos, Alfredo Jaar, Sam Gilliam, and Lava Thomas
I am participating on a panel with Sam Gilliam and Alfredo Jaar at the Smithsonian American Art Museum on April 4. The event, Contemporary Artists in Conversation with History: 1968, falls on the 50th anniversary of the assassination of Martin Luther King, Jr. The conversation will be moderated by SAAM Deputy Chief Curator, E. Carmen Ramos.
In addition to discussing Requiem for Charleston, I'll be discussing new work currently in progress: A series of portraits based on mugshots of women who helped lead the Montgomery Bus Boycott.
PULSE MIAMI BEACH
RENA BRANSTEN GALLERY | BOOTH N-200
INDIAN BEACH PARK
4601 COLLINS AVENUE
MIAMI BEACH, FLORIDA
DECEMBER 7-10, 2017
Looking Back 1 will be included in the Rena Bransten Gallery booth at PULSE Miami Beach this year, alongside works by Dawoud Bey, Bovey Lee, Hung Liu, Robert Minervini, Vik Muniz, John Preus, and Nobuyuki Takahashi.
For more information, contact:
Trish Bransten, trish@renabranstengallery.com / 415.602.1776
Jenny Baie, jenny@renabranstengallery.com / 415.652.3486
Rena Bransten Gallery
Minnesota Street Project
1275 Minnesota St.
San Francisco, CA 94107
415.982.3292
info@renabranstengallery.com
DOUBLE TAKE: ONE ARTWORK TWO VIEWPOINTS
FEATURING REQUIEM FOR CHARLESTON
SMITHSONIAN AMERICAN ART MUSEUM
LINCOLN GALLERY FOR MODERN & CONTEMPORARY ART
F ST NW & 8TH ST NW | WASHINGTON, DC
NOVEMBER 14 | 6-7 PM | FREE
SAAM Senior Curator of Interpretation, Joanna Marsh, and History Curator, Kevin Strait, Ph.D. from the National Museum of African American History and Culture will discuss Requiem for Charleston as part of the SAAM program, Double Take: One Artwork Two Viewpoints. I'll be in attendance and hope to see you there.
Click here for more info.
SABBATH: THE 2017 DOROTHY SAXE INVITATIONAL
CONTEMPORARY JEWISH MUSEUM
736 MISSION ST | SAN FRANCISCO
NOVEMBER 12, 2017 - FEBRUARY 25, 2018
The 2017 Dorothy Saxe Invitational is a group exhibition that examines the diversity of meanings associated with Sabbath, the day of rest. Indigo Sabbath is on view alongside works from over fifty artists commissioned by CJM for this exhibition.
Cora McHaney, 2017, graphite and conte pencil on paper, 47 x 33 1/2" *work in progress*
VISITING ARTISTS + SCHOLARS LECTURE SERIES: LAVA THOMAS
SAN FRANCISCO ART INSTITUTE
OSHER LECTURE HALL | 800 CHESTNUT STREET
OCTOBER 24 | 7-9PM | FREE
I hope to see you next Tuesday evening at the San Francisco Art Institute, where I'll be discussing new work in progress as part of SFAI's Visiting Artists + Scholars Lecture Series. Click here to RSVP.
I'm currently an Artist in Residence at Headlands Center for the Arts through October 18th. Join me at the Headlands this weekend on Sunday, September 17 from 12-5pm for the grand opening of The Commons, a new outdoor gathering space on Headlands' campus. The public celebration will feature installations and live performances. Click here for more info.
Requiem for Charleston is currently on view in the Lincoln Gallery at the Smithsonian American Art Museum (SAAM). I was invited to speak about Requiem for Charleston for SAAM's Contemporary Artist Series. I'm looking forward to sharing the interview with you when it becomes available.
Joanna Marsh, Senior Curator of Contemporary Interpretation, writes:
Requiem for Charleston honors the nine men and women who died in a shooting on June 17, 2015, inside the Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church in Charleston, South Carolina. Tambourines with black lambskin heads are inscribed with the victims' names, while the drums of others are made of polished black acrylic that reflect the faces of viewers, suggesting the collective tragedy of the attack. Artist Lava Thomas chose to memorialize the dead with tambourines because of their cultural and historical significance, particularly their role in African American musical traditions--including protest songs of the civil rights era. In the days following the Charleston massacre, tambourines, cymbals, and bells rang throughout the community as a call for unity and support. Here the instruments hang motionless, in silent tribute to the lives lost.
Joanna Marsh, Senior Curator of Contemporary Interpretation, Anne Showalter, Education Research Specialist, yours truly, and Sarah Newman, Dicke Curator of Contemporary Art.
My work is included in a group exhibition organized by Artworks For Change at the Patan Museum in Kathmandu, Nepal. The True Stories Project: Exploitation and Empowerment runs May 1-31, 2017. Read more about the project here: press release .
Artworks for Change and the exhibition were featured in a New York Times article: New Message at Some Museums: Don’t Just Look. Do.
I was one of several artists invited to participate in the group exhibition "With Liberty and Justice for Some," co-curated by Monica Lundy on view at Walter Maciel Gallery. The exhibition includes over 100 portraits of immigrants: artists, friends, relatives, historical figures, politicians and celebrities. A portion of proceeds from the exhibition go to organizations that provide support to marginalized communities, including: ACLU https://www.aclu.org/, Trevor Project http://www.thetrevorproject.org/ , Center for Reproductive Rights https://www.reproductiverights.org/ , Planned Parenthood https://www.plannedparenthood.org , LA LGBT Center https://lalgbtcenter.org/ and The SF LGBT Center http://www.sfcenter.org/
The exhibition received a wonderful review in the Huffington Post and a video and write up on KQED!
Exhibition Dates: January 7 - March 4
Walter Maciel Gallery
2642 S. La Cienega Blvd.
Culver City, CA
