Here are some images from a recent visit to Austin Thomas’s studio, where three-dimensional collages, text-based drawings, and handmade prints line the walls. Small-scale and composed of humble materials like graph paper, colored paper, and pencil, Thomas’s thought-provoking work exudes an understated anxiety tempered with wry humor. Working toward a solo show in September, Thomas, who closed Pocket Utopia last year, is determined to avoid any additional projects for the time being–except for organizing Camp Pocket Utopia, an artists’ retreat inspired by the legendary Black Mountain College. Camp Pocket Utopia will convene in upstate New York this July.
Thomas’s recent curatorial projects include Ocketopia @ Lesley Heller and the Auxiliary Art Exhibition at Tom’s Salon.
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These collages are very cool; they are something that I could see myself doing. It reminds me a lot of altered books. I love the stenciled sketchbook page (I don't think that I would have ever guessed that it was done that way if the stencil had not been in the photograph).
Yoko Ono did art like that in the 60's.
John Lennon described climbing a ladder to use a little spy-glass to read something on a canvas that was on a ceiling {I think that was pretty much the description}, and the thing he read on the canvas was the word "YES". So, stuff like this has been done. Almost anything under the sun has already been done ! Auuugghhhh !!!!!!!
Nice anyway though – the artist put their own spin on it.