Skidmore Contemporary Art presents two new exhibitions…”Tracey Sylvester Harris: Golden Glamour,” and “James David Thomas: The Wheel.”

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Here is some info on the artists from the gallery: Tracey Sylvester Harris merges past and present in her exhibition “Diving Boards,” and “Floating Girls.” While Harris’ distinctive, nostalgic figures are most notably associated with a previous time, she manages to ground the figures as relevant with her painting style. Harris says on her work, “to avoid sentimentality, I keep the composition bold and cropped, the paintwork loose, drippy and rough. Even pushing some areas into abstraction.”

Harris’s ability to blend past with present encourages viewers to relate to her works. Without a definite time, place, or person, audiences can visualize their own stories within a Harris painting, and perhaps relax in the sun or in a pool alongside her figures.

This is James David Thomas’ second one-person show. In his Urban Archeology painting series in particular, James David Thomas plays the Euclidean role, observing from on high the shimmering lights and criss-crossed streets of Los Angeles, all signs of the human element save flesh and blood themselves. Recalling the quality of light of painters such as Camille Corot, Gustave Courbet, and Charles Daubigney, Thomas delights in the depiction of landscapes in a twenty-first century world increasingly absorbed into the digital and the mechanical.

While his works don’t feature faces or bodies, they are hardly shying away from the figurative. By depicting the effects of humanity on an ever-changing landscape, Thomas paints a portrait of humanity and human activities that sends a more powerful message than any portrait could convey, and challenge the viewers’ notions of what beauty can, and should mean, in a rapidly-developing world. – Deborah Krieger, June 2016

On view: June 2 – June 30, 2018

Where: Skidmore Contemporary Art, Bergamot, (B-4), 2525 Michigan Ave., Santa Monica, 90404
Website: http://skidmorecontemporaryart.com/