DUE TO THE NAPA/SONOMA COUNTY FIRES THIS LECTURE IS CANCELLED.
Date: Tuesday, October 24, 2017 7:00 PM – 8:30 PM
Location: The CIA at Copia Theater, 500 First Street, Napa, CA
Artist Biography:
Larry Thomas – Larry Thomas’s work is represented in the collections of the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco, the S.F. Museum of Modern Art, the National Museum of American Art in Washington, D.C. as well as numerous public and private collections. He is the recipient of two National Endowment for the Arts Individual Fellowships, recipient of the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art SECA Award, has shown in numerous solo and group exhibitions regionally and nationally. His work is represented in the permanent collections of artist’s books at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Whitney Museum of American Art, the Houghton Library at Harvard University among others. Additionally, he has been in residence as a visiting scholar at the American Academy in Rome, a resident artist at the Djerassi Resident Artists Program, the Ragdale Foundation, and the Sitka Center for Art & Ecology
He retired from teaching and administrative positions at the San Francisco Art Institute where he served in several capacities from 1981 until 2005 including Dean of Academic Affairs, Interim President, Departmental Chair of the Printmaking Department, and Associate Professor of Printmaking. Each summer he teaches a drawing workshop at Sitka Center for Art and Ecology on the coast of Oregon and in 2010 conducted a similar concentrated drawing course at Haystack Mountain School of Crafts at Deer Isle, Maine. In 2008-09 he served as Visiting Tutor at the Burren College of Art in Ballyvaughan, Ireland and conducted a specialized workshop in drawing at Bennington College under the sponsorship of North Country Studio Workshops. Additionally, he has served on many grant panels and has participated in several international cultural exchanges. He has also served on the Board of Directors for the Alliance of Artists Communities, the Headlands Center for the Arts and on the Advisory Council for the Flintridge Foundation, and the Sitka Center for Art & Ecology. He received his Bachelor of Fine Arts degree from the Memphis Academy of Arts, his Master of Fine Arts degree from the San Francisco Art Institute, and an Honorary Doctorate from the Memphis College of Art. He currently lives and works in the rural northern California coastal community of Fort Bragg.
His work is comprised of paintings, drawings, prints and calligraphy. He works primarily on paper combining ink drawing, engraving, acrylic washes and pencil. Much of his work is focused on disparate details of the natural environment in often complex and carefully executed images. His work is evocative and meditative, often reflecting aspects of ancient indigenous cultures that synthesize place, time, history and culture.
