Jasper is excited to present Thomas Crouch’s work at our new space in the Koger Center gallery on the second floor adjacent to the Donor gallery. Join us for the opening reception, part of Third Thursday in the Vista, January 19th from 5 – 7 pm.
Artist’s Bio
Thomas Crouch is a visual artist in Columbia SC. After studying at The Lorenzo De Medici School of Art 1990-92 in Florence, Italy he graduated from the University of South Carolina Bachelor of Arts in 1997.
He was accepted in to the inaugural Sedona Summer Colony Artist Residency 2016 in Sedona, Arizona as well as the Con Artist Collective Winter Residency 2017 in Manhattan NY. He is a member of Solas Studio NYC and has work in private collections nationally and internationally.
Artist’s Statement
Visual art is among the earliest and most potent forms of human communication and transferral of ideas. It exceeds the boundaries of language and sound, academia and intellect and relies solely upon itself and the viewer for it’s success or failure.
My work is from a perspective of living, working and creating art in rural and metropolitan environments. I enjoy utilizing objects from my immediate environment both physically and representationally. My working studios have taken me from Europe, Hudson Valley NY, NYC, the Southwest and Deep South United States. In all I find artistic direction in the natural world
Process Abandon
“A poem is never finished, only abandoned.”
Paul Valery
This group of paintings focus on the process. Composition, texture and value become the subject matter. I’ve wanted to do large abstract non representational pieces where the viewer can interpret the paintings rather than the artist dictate their experience. This departure from the animal portraiture I’ve done in the past is refreshing to me. Incorporating the two has been both frustrating and rewarding. Painting this way is interesting to me because the end result changes from day to day. The final image is not known to me. There are no blueprints to work on top of and no animals to envelope the canvas. Instead, thick brush strokes create linear texture and wheat pasted prints demand attention from the rest of the canvas. The images shown here that serve as a subject are merely vehicles for the piece.
My work has continually changed over the years. This recent change is a return to early form as well as a new direction. Every new piece builds on the last while exposing something new. This group of paintings are the most recent examples of an ongoing process of layering looking and leaving.