MATTHEW THOMAS
“Darshan/looking beyond the obvious”
February 16 – March 12, 2010
Reception: Tuesday, February 23, 7-9 p.m.
Gallery walk through with the artist: Tuesday, March 2, 1pm
Matthew Thomas, “Harmonize”, 2009, encaustic and cloth on wood, 12 x 8″.
EL CAMINO COLLEGE ART GALLERY:
16007 Crenshaw Boulevard, Torrance, CA 90506
Contact/Curator: Susanna Meiers, (310) 660-3593, x3543; (310) 660-3010
E-mail: smeiers@elcamino.edu
Gallery hours: Mon & Tues: 10am-3pm, Wed & Thur: 10am-8pm, Fri: 10am-2pm
A master of geometric abstraction, Matthew Thomas has explored religious and cultural traditions for over 35 years. Through the study and practice of multiple traditions including Mahayana Buddhism, Sufism, Vedanta Yoga and Christianity, Thomas has developed a dynamic visual language that synthesizes this spiritual study into geometric structures, color patterns and mathematical systems. Within the rigorous restraint of this language the artist produces works that are simultaneously highly charged, meditative and expressive. Through occasional use of African textiles adhered to panels, coated with wax and metal leaf, Thomas alludes to his African-American heritage.
Darshan displays groupings of Thomas’s paintings, arranged as giant mandalas that vibrate with energy and feeling. These works are primarily encaustic on wood panel with gold leaf, intense pigments and inscribed geometric lines that bear reference to both physical and metaphysical universes.
One huge conglomerate work, The Gesture of Touching the Earth is comprised of 16 panels, heavily encrusted with clay and pigment. While many of the other works in the gallery serve as cosmic diagrams, this work is abundantly physical and related to the earth.
In a separate chamber before a brilliant pink wall Matthews has performed a meticulous drawing in colored sand, leaving in residue, an exquisite diagram of the artist’s meditation.
Matthew Thomas’s work is deceptively simple. In fact, his deft paintings of point, line and circle explore the intersection of the scientific and spiritual. Through the encaustic veil one senses Thomas’s persistent drive to delve deeply into the eternal mysteries and to map the parameters of a subtle universe.
