CURRENT EXHIBITION

Chiffon Thomas, *Untitled*, 2024, bronze, stained glass and steel, 16 3/4 x 8 1/2 x 7 1/4 inches

Michael Kohn Gallery is pleased to announce Progeny, an exhibition of new works by Los Angeles-based artist Chiffon Thomas. For his second exhibition with the gallery, Thomas will present a group of monumental architectural sculptures, a body of work continuing from his recent solo exhibition, The Cavernous, at The Aldrich Contemporary Art Museum, Ridgefield, CT. This series will be his latest presentation in Los Angeles since his participation in the Hammer Museum’s biennial Made in L.A. 2023: Acts of Living. The exhibition will be on view from June 20 through August 17, 2024.

At the core of the exhibition are two monumental concrete obelisks inverted to place the stability of the structures onto a spillage of life-casted cascading feet, replicated and amalgamated together to behave as a dense, impenetrable element. Casted by Thomas himself, the anonymous appendages act as signifiers for overall forms, and memorialize the labor of precursors and histories unknown. In this approach to stabilization, Thomas addresses the precarious nature of humanity, while also representing ancestral strength, legacy and endurance of life among marginalized groups by referencing existing contemporaries.

Other works in the exhibition expand on Thomas’ pursuit of representing “impossible bodies.” Influenced by the evolution of biomimicry, he constructs free-standing pyramids from anatomical forms that render as ancient structures. The biomorphic sculptures tether stained glass with sutured skin; a post-human symbiosis of the organic and inorganic that recall Thomas’ fascination with ecclesiastical imagery. Citing Martin Puryear’s bulbous forms and Louise Bourgeois’ merging of homes with human forms, Thomas states: “I want skin to perform as architecture, and architecture to perform something bodily.”

Chiffon Thomas’ explorative practice encompasses embroidery, collage, sculpture, drawing, performance, and installation. Amy Smith-Stewart, Curator at the Aldrich Contemporary Art Museum, elaborates on Thomas’ interdisciplinary approach to his work in a recent publication: “…interrogating a legacy of colonization, Black injustice, and classism in the US, Thomas entwines matters resonant with personal and collective histories of trauma and repair, as well as resilience and transformation.” In his 2021 exhibition with the gallery, Antithesis, Thomas used figurative assemblages to interpret feelings of nostalgia, metamorphosis, and decay; this new body of work is not so much a departure, but rather an enunciation of the artist’s practice as a sculptor.

Since opening his first show with Michael Kohn Gallery three years ago, Thomas has been featured in a solo exhibition at The Aldrich Contemporary Art Museum and the Hammer Biennial Made in L.A. 2023: Acts of Living. In 2022, he was awarded the Joan Mitchell Fellowship. Thomas’ work is in the permanent collections of the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, CA; Hammer Museum, Los Angeles, CA; Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago, IL; Studio Museum in Harlem, New York, NY; Institute of Contemporary Art, Miami, FL; and Crocker Art Museum, Sacramento, CA; among others.

ABOUT THE ARTIST

Born and raised in Chicago, IL, Chiffon Thomas received his MFA in Painting from Yale University in 2020 and his BFA from the Art Institute of Chicago in 2014. Thomas is the recent recipient of the Joan Mitchell Fellowship and the Fountainhead Residency. Recent exhibitions include Antithesis, Michael Kohn Gallery, Los Angeles, CA (2021); Staircase to the Rose Window, P.P.O.W., New York, NY (2022); Dreaming of Home, Leslie-Lohman Museum of Art, New York, NY (2023); Made in L.A. 2023: Acts of Living, Hammer Museum, Los Angeles, CA (2023); and his first solo museum exhibition Chiffon Thomas: The Cavernous, The Aldrich Contemporary Art Museum, Ridgefield, CT. His work is included in the permanent collections of the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, CA; Hammer Museum, Los Angeles, CA; Studio Museum in Harlem, New York, NY; Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago, IL; Institute of Contemporary Art, Miami, FL; Crocker Art Museum, Sacramento, CA; Pérez Art Museum, Miami, FL; Norton Museum, West Palm Beach, FL; Speed Museum of Art, Louisville, KY; Currier Museum of Art, Manchester, NH; and X Museum, Beijing, China; among others.

PAST EXHIBITIONS

Siji Krishnan, Liminal Spaces

April 26 - June 8, 2024
Gallery 1, 2 & 3

William Brickel, Was It Ever Fair.

January 20 - March 2, 2024
Gallery 1 & 2

Rosa Loy, Glade

March 9 - April 20, 2024
Gallery 1 & 2

Li Hei Di, Oscillating Womb

November 2, 2023 - January 6, 2024
Gallery 1 & 2

Faris Heizer, These days

November 2, 2023 - January 6, 2024
Gallery 3

COMPOSITION

September 15 - October 21, 2023
Gallery 1 & 2

Ed Moses, Edges, Magmas and Waterfalls

September 18 - October 30, 2021
Gallery 1, 2 & 3

101 Years of Still Life: 1920-Present

August 7 - September 11, 2021
Gallery 1 & 2

Joe Goode, 20 Years Later

June 18 - August 7, 2021
Gallery 3

William Brickel, I’d Tell You If I Could

June 11 - July 31, 2021
Gallery 1 & 2

Chiffon Thomas, Antithesis

April 9 - May 21, 2021
Gallery 1, 2 & 3

Jellyfish, Curated by Samantha Glaser-Weiss

January 31 - March 13, 2020
Gallery 1 & 2

Octavio Abúndez, Facts, contradictions, puzzles…

November 9, 2019 - January 16, 2020
Gallery 1 & 2

Enrique Martínez Celaya, The Tears of Things

September 13 - November 1, 2019
Gallery 1 & 2

María Berrío, A Cloud’s Roots

June 1 - August 30, 2019
Gallery 1 & 2

Heidi Hahn, Burn Out in Shredded Heaven

April 6 - May 23, 2019
Gallery 1

Jarvis Boyland, On Hold:

April 6 - May 23, 2019
Gallery 2

Gonzalo Lebrija, Veladuras Nocturnas

January 19 - March 23, 2019
Gallery 1, 2 & 3

Rosa Loy, So Near And Yet So Far

November 9, 2018 - January 9, 2019
Gallery 1 & 2

Tony Berlant, Fast Forward

September 22 - November 3, 2019
Gallery 1 & 2

Jess, Secret Compartments

July 21 - September 7, 2019
Gallery 1, 2 & 3

Jonathan Lyndon Chase, Sheets

June 1 - July 14, 2018
Gallery 1 & 2

Mark Innerst, New Paintings

April 6 - May 24, 2018
Gallery 1 & 2

Gesture | Form | Pop | Process

February 27 - March 29, 2018
Gallery 1 & 2

Engender

November 11, 2017 - January 27, 2018
Gallery 1, 2 & 3

Chingaderas Sofisticadas

September 16 - November 4, 2017
Gallery 1, 2 & 3

Dennis Hopper, The Lost Album

July 8 - September 1, 2017
Gallery 1, 2 & 3

Dean Byington, Theory of Machines

May 19 - June 30, 2017
Gallery 1 & 2

Joe Goode, Old Ideas with New Solutions

March 23 - May 13, 2017
Gallery 1, 2 & 3

Bruce Conner, LOOKING FOR MUSHROOMS

February 9 - March 15, 2017
Gallery 1

Bruce Conner, A MOVIE

November 11, 2016 - February 8, 2017
Gallery 1

John Altoon, Works from the Estate

September 16 - October 29, 2016
Gallery 1 & 2

Ori Gersht, Floating World

July 9 - September 10, 2016
Gallery 1 & 2

Wallace Berman, American Aleph

May 6 - June 25, 2016
Gallery 1, 2 & 3

Ryan McGinness, #metadata

March 19 - April 15, 2016
Gallery 1, 2 & 3

Dean Levin, XTC

January 16 - February 27, 2016
Gallery 2 & 3

Lita Albuquerque, Embodiment

January 9 - February 27, 2016
Gallery 1

Simmons & Burke, Dutch Masters

November 6 - December 19, 2015
Gallery 1

Object/Space: Robert Ryman + Giorgio Morandi

September 19 - October 31, 2015
Gallery 1

The West Coast Avant-Garde, 1950 - Present

July 18 - September 4, 2015
Gallery 1 & 2

Jess’s Didactic Nickelodeon

June 6 - July 10, 2015
Gallery 3

William Monk, The Cloud is Growing in the Trees

May 29 - July 10, 2015
Gallery 1 & 2

Camille Rose Garcia, Mirror, Black Mirror

April 25 - May 20, 2015
Gallery 3

Tom LaDuke, Candles and Lasers

April 11 - May 20, 2015
Gallery 1 & 2

LAND, AIR, SEE

February 21 - April 2, 2015
Gallery 1 & 2

Troika, Cartography of Control

January 10 - February 12, 2015
Gallery 1 & 2

Eddie Martinez, Nomader

September 12 - October 25, 2014
Gallery 1 & 2

Lita Albuquerque, Light Carries Information

November 15 - December 20, 2014
Gallery 2

Joe Goode, Flat Screen Nature

July 12 - August 29, 2014
Gallery 1, 2 & 3

Bruce Conner, CROSSROADS & WORKS ON PAPER

November 8 - December 20, 2014
Gallery 1 & 3

Mark Ryden, The Gay 90s West

May 3 - June 28, 2014
Gallery 1, 2 & 3