New Gallery is pleased to announce Deterritorialization, an exhibition of new paintings by Samantha Thomas.  This exhibition is curated by Mike Weiss of Mike Weiss Gallery where Thomas recently had her first one-woman show in New York.  The 26 year-old artist currently lives and works in Los Angeles.  This is her first solo exhibition in Texas.
 
In the paintings on view, Samantha Thomas further investigates the terrain between abstraction and representation, bridging these two visual styles into her own distinct fantastical world.  The shapes and lines laid down by the artist collide and stretch beyond the edge of the canvas, as though what we see before us is only a snap-shot from an expansive subterranean realm.
 
Through her work, Thomas seeks to explore the endless possibilities of form and space in a variety of different media, including oil, acrylic, enamel and spray-paint.   Using a limited color pallet, she is able to unearth a wide range of rich tones, contrasting milky whites and golden browns against deep blacks and steely grays.  The paintings allude to the history of mark making as it relates to abstract expressionism, evident in the rivulets and drops of paint that trickle down the front of the canvases, and the broad strokes and textured surfaces.  The distinctive shapes and patterns in these paintings offer a myriad of perspectives, wherein flattened fields of color are paired with fluid and twisting organic forms.  Thomas’ renderings of hypogeal territories communicate a profound understanding of abstract and literal forms, revealing a “multi-reality space” that blends expressionist dynamics with the harmony of abstraction.
 
Samantha Thomas received a B.F.A. from the Art Center College of Design in Pasadena, CA in 2004 and had her first solo exhibition at Patricia Faure Gallery, Santa Monica in 2005.