Public Programs

ARTIST TALK: LAVA THOMAS

January 23, 2020
7:00 PM - 8:30 PM

In Collaboration With

The Baltimore Museum of Art

Join Art + Practice for an artist talk with Los Angeles-native artist Lava Thomas. Through a multidisciplinary practice that includes drawing, painting, sculpture, and site-specific installation, Thomas’s work considers notions of visibility, empowerment, and healing in the face of erasure, oppression, and trauma. At A+P, Thomas will discuss recent and new works that explore portraiture and memorialization through a black feminist lens.

This program is organized on the occasion of A+P’s exhibitions Stephen Towns: Rumination and a Reckoning and Ramsess: The Gathering.

Please RSVP here. Admission is always free.

Lava Thomas, Resistance Reverb: Movements 1 & 2, 2018. Tambourines, leather, suede, Plexiglas, mirrored acrylic, acrylic paint, monofilament wire, S-hooks, aluminum grid, steel, fans, and lights. Approx. 102 × 156 × 312 in.
Lava Thomas, Resistance Reverb: Movements 1 & 2 (detail), 2018. Tambourines, leather, suede, Plexiglas, mirrored acrylic, acrylic paint, monofilament wire, S-hooks, aluminum grid, steel, fans, and lights. Approx. 102 × 156 × 312 in.
Lava Thomas, Lottie Green Varner, 2018. Graphite and conté pencil on paper. 33 1/4 x 47 in.
Lava Thomas, Cora McHaney, 2018. Graphite and conté pencil on paper. 33 1/4 x 47 in.
Lava Thomas, Looking Back and Seeing Now, 2015. Site-specific installation including: Tambourine installation, altered tambourines, lambskin, leather, ribbon, acrylic mirrors, digital prints, glue, monofilament wire, s-hooks, wood, and steel, 15 x 12 x 20 ft.; Looking Back 1. Graphite, conté pencil, charcoal, and watercolor on paper. 72 x 72 in.; Looking Back 2. Graphite, conté pencil, charcoal, and watercolor on paper. 72 x 72 in.

Speakers

Lava Thomas’ work explores the events, figures, and movements that inform and shape our individual and collective histories. Through an oeuvre that spans drawing, painting, photography, sculpture, and installation, her practice centers around notions of visibility, resilience, and empowerment in the face of erasure, trauma, and oppression.

Thomas is from Los Angeles, CA. She studied at UCLA’s School of Art Practice and received a BFA from California College of the Arts. Thomas has been awarded residencies at the Headlands Center for the Arts, Kala Art Institute, and the Djerassi Resident Artists Program. She is a recipient of the Lucas Artists Fellowship in Visual Arts, a Getty Foundation Grant, a Peninsula Community Foundation Fellowship, and the Joan Mitchell Grant for Painters and Sculptors.

Her work has been exhibited at various institutions including the Smithsonian American Art Museum in Washington, D.C; the California African American Museum in Los Angeles; the Museum of the African Diaspora in San Francisco, CA; the di Rosa Center for Contemporary Art in Napa, CA; the International Print Center in New York; the Contemporary Jewish Museum in San Francisco, CA; and the Museum of Contemporary Art in Boulder, CO. Her work is held in the permanent collections of the Smithsonian American Art Museum in Washington, D.C.; the Museum of Modern Art in San Francisco; the United States Consulate in Johannesburg, South Africa; the M.H. de Young Museum in San Francisco, CA; and the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts in Philadelphia, PA. Thomas is represented by Rena Bransten Gallery in San Francisco. She lives and works in the San Francisco Bay Area.

Other Programs in this Series

Mon 20 Jan

WORKSHOP WITH RAMSESS: QUILTING THE NIPSEY HUSSLE COMMUNITY QUILT

January 20, 2020
12:00 AM - 2:00 PM

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Wed 8 Jan

ARTIST TALK: DIEDRICK BRACKENS

January 8, 2020
7:00 PM - 8:30 PM

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Thu 12 Dec

ARTIST TALK: KENTURAH DAVIS

December 12, 2019
7:00 PM - 8:30 PM

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Thu 14 Nov

ARTIST TALK: LUIS FLORES

November 14, 2019
7:00 PM - 8:30 PM

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Tue 15 Oct

IN CONVERSATION: STEPHEN TOWNS AND RAMSESS WITH CECILIA WICHMANN

October 15, 2019
7:00 PM - 8:30 PM

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Intro Info Select Works Speakers Other Programs