Terri Thomas
Terri Thomas envisions her life-sized oil paintings as mirrors for our collective notions of 'duality,' 'femininity,' 'beauty,' and 'perfection.' Despite the powerful visual language of her videos, paintings, digital stills and performances, there is more than initially meets the eye. Employing a diaristic approach laden with references to consumer imagery, societal stereotypes, cultural fascinations, and art history itself, Thomas' works are charged with ambiguity. By appropriating mass media imagery and her own image, and reworking both with a critical eye, Thomas examines how society and we as individuals are caught in an ubiquitous web of self-production imagery that is at once repulsive and enticing.
"Twin/Singleton"
"Artist as Barbie Triptych"
Artist's Statement
Identity In The Age Of The Image
by Terri Thomas
"A culture always cultivates what it honors." - Plato
As a society, we are enthralled with facsimiles, illusions and notions of "Beauty" and the "Double". So much so, that we prefer the image to the object, appearance to substance, fantasy to reality, form to content, and copies to their original.
We create simulations of self that are romanticized concepts of who we wish to be. Representations are so realistic that enhanced images in fashion magazines, cinema's artificial heroes, TV celebrities, and even the "standard", ubiquitous mannequins in department stores work their way into the construction of our identities. These manufactured ideals intoxicate us to the point we aspire to embody them. Rather than reflecting who we are, these fabrications become a new desire, a new goal.
Technology has become our ally in our relentless pursuit of these projected ideals. Rather than question what is real, original, or valuable, we have become obsessed with our potential double — some "new & improved" self, as we choose to "nurture" ourselves rather than choosing our inherent "nature". However, our culture's obsession with notions of "Beauty" and "Perfection" traps us in a state of either "self-preservation" or "self-persecution." In attempts to self-preserve, we document, enhance, and refigure our bodies to maintain appearances. We are conditioned to experience self-persecution and a distorted self-esteem as we attempt to avoid, or give in to, the no-win confines of the media and its beauty myth.
In striving for the realization of an idealized self, it may be that our individual goals are becoming increasingly the same. We are both the consumers and the consumed. First, we create the simulations and parodies, then, they create us. As a result, our societal projected ideals, replicas, and stereotypes lead to superficial and stereotypical behavior. Because of what we honor, we allow ourselves to be shaped by verisimilitude and identity becomes production.
Artist's Statement 2:
Prints, videos, drawings and life-sized paintings are best viewed as mirrors for our collective notions of ‘otherness/duality,’ ‘beauty’ and ‘perfection.’
As a twin who has spent 15 years in the fashion industry, I am fascinated by the way the media perverts the idea of twins, turning them into identity-less icons in order to sell products, negating individuality and creating stereotypes. I am also interested in how the media breeds envy and shame through fabricated ideals, spectacle and imagery that fuels our desire for self-improvement.
Using personal narratives laden with references to consumer imagery, societal stereotypes, cultural fascinations and art history, my work is based on concern for how we are conditioned to desire, identify with and be informed by the media. My personal experiences are flattened, fictionalized, and fabricated until they become the products and ideas I criticize.
By combining my own images with appropriated mass media imagery, I examine how society and we as individuals are caught in a ubiquitous web of self-production that is at once repulsive and enticing.
Artist's Resume
Born 1967 Detroit, MI.
Education
2004 Bachelor’s of Fine Art, Corcoran College of Art + Design,
Washington, D.C.
Solo Exhibitions
2006 “U-Genics,” invited by John Markey & Chris Slover, Volitant Gallery, Austin, Texas
2004 “Indivi/duality,” curated by Scip Barnhart, Mac Feely Gallery, The Arts
Club of Washington, D.C.
Group Exhibitions
2007 “5 x 7 2007,” organized by Sue Graze, Arthouse at the Jones Center, Austin Texas
2006 “Temporal Happiness,” invited by S Gaulager & C Disabato, Aved Gallery, Austin, Texas
2006 “Humans,” curated by James Baird Gallery >Pouch Cove, Newfoundland, Cananda
2006 “Red Hot” exhibit, invited by Chris Cowden at Women & Their Work, Austin, Texas
2006 ”Invitational Show,” organized by Rachel Koper at Gallery Lombardi, , Austin, Texas
2005 “The Others,” selected by Lytle Pressley at Spazio, Austin, Texas
2005 “Faces of the Fallen,” organized by Annette Polan, The Women in Military Service for
America Memorial, in the Arlington National Cemetery.
2005 “Uncommon Vision,” curated by William Newman at the Monroe Gallery, in The Arts Club
of Washington, D.C.
2004 “Academy 2004,” curated by Jamie L. Smith at Conner Contemporary Art Gallery, Washington, D.C.
2004 “All Senior Show,” in Gallery #2 at The Corcoran Museum of Art, Washington D.C.
2004 “BFA Thesis Exhibit,” in the Hemicycle, Corcoran Museum of Art, Washington D.C.
2004 “Together with U,” organized by Chris Williams at South Gallery 3, Baltimore, MD.
Awards
2004 /00 Dean’s Merit Scholarship - Honors Graduate
2002 Dr. William Newman Award – Outstanding Achievement In Painting.
2001 Foundation Faculty Award-Outstanding Achievement in Painting and Drawing
Publications
2006 Volitant Catalog, “U-Genics,” Interview with Joe Martin Hill (whom is on the curatorial team assisting Robert Storr in the preparation of the Venice Biennale for 2007).
2006 Undecided Review - Terri Thomas’ “U-Genics,” November 7th, 2006.
2006 In The Works: An Art Blog – “U-Genics” Review, September 30th, 2006.
2005 Spazio’s Artist Spotlight, November 2005.
2004 Washington City Paper, “ Thinking About Art: August 2004”, by Louis Jacobson
2004 WPAC (Washington Projects for the Arts-Corcoran) 2004 Catalog
2004/02 Corcoran College of Art + Design Catalog
Collections
Transitions Institute, Dallas, TX.
Stephen M. Potts & Associates, Inc. Dallas, TX.
Larry Leon & Associates, Dallas, TX.
Toni & Guy, Dallas, TX.
A & C Ventures, San Francisco, CA.
First Street Inc., San Francisco, CA.
Private collection of the Cartwright’s, Marina Del Rey, CA.
Private collection of Frauke and Cornell Faultin, Washington, D.C.
Private collection of Emilie and Stephen Becker, Austin, Texas
Private collection of Megan and Chris Slover, (owner of Volitant Gallery), Austin, Texas.
Private collection of Judith and Howard A. Tullman, Chicago, Illinois.
Additional Private Collectors throughout the U.S.
Artist's Biography
Terri Thomas: Biography
Terri Thomas was born in 1967 in Detroit, Michigan. As a twin raised by a single mother, she grew increasingly aware of the range of complex body issues that preoccupy most females. She showed artistic talent from an early age, fascinated by the scope of emotion her grandfather, a professional artist, was able to infuse into his paintings.
To get closer to the art world Terri pursued a career in the fashion industry. As a hair stylist, a job well done meant a day filled with hopeful transformations in which desirable makeovers turned into reality. While she developed close relationships with her clients, often acting as their confidant, Terri became more and more concerned with the ever-increasing emphasis on physical perfection and the means to which people would go to achieve this standard.
She also became concerned with the commoditization of beauty. Terri began to feel anesthetized toward the feelings and discomforts of the models she was surrounded by; they were often little more than the tools of the industry, continually cast off for their non-compliance or “imperfections”. Soon she was unable to decipher if her work in fashion was empowering or if it was contribution to a growing contemporary problem.
One day Terri stumbled upon an article in a fashion magazine about painter Jenny Saville entitled Skin Deep. Saville’s raw, expressionistic bodies were powerful portrayals of the many issues that had begun to consume Terri’s thoughts.
After moving to Washington, D.C. in 2001, Terri decided to give up her 15-year career in fashion and pursue an art degree at Corcoran College of Art & Design.
Influenced by the work of artists like Cindy Sherman, Douglas Gordon, Marc Quinn, Jeff Koons and Vanessa Beecroft, Terri began painting large-scale cinematic, seductive paintings that analyzed how self-perception is affected by the media.
Since graduating from Corcoran with honors in 2004, Terri’s work has expanded to include installation, video and photography. Her work continues to challenge preconceptions about beauty and explore how the utopian promises of the media both feed and reconcile anxieties about the self. Her work has been shown in multiple group and solo exhibitions throughout the country. The artist currently lives and works in Austin, Texas.