Chiffon Thomas’ first solo museum exhibition, The Cavernous, will unveil a new body of work including the artist’s first public sculpture. Thomas’ interdisciplinary practice, spanning embroidery, collage, sculpture, drawing, performance, and installation, examines the ruptures that exist where race, gender expression, and biography intersect. Thomas’ practice is informed by his background in education, percussion, and stop motion animation, as well as a childhood steeped in religion. The artist cites artists Noah Purifoy, Louise Bourgeois, Odilon Redon, Torkwase Dyson, and Martin Puryear, authors Octavia E. Butler and bell hooks among his inspirations. Mining imagery and content from architecture, science fiction, and art history, Thomas interweaves narratives that collapse time and circumstance to survey the adaptability of identity and to scrutinize systems and structures of power and control. He joins material in architectural forms with ambiguous forms of his and others’ bodies, structured and sutured in urethane, foam, plaster, and leather, to illustrate portals of regenerative space. Interrogating a legacy of colonization, Black injustice, and classism in the US, Thomas entwines materials resonant with personal and collective histories of trauma and repair, as well as resilience and transformation. Sliding between representation and abstraction, Thomas’ methodology underscores society’s binary opposition, finding agency and care within the gaps and fissures that endure.

The exhibition features drawings and sculptures at varying sizes and tempos, including Thomas’ largest works to date and latest experimentations with new materials and fabrication methods. 

Chiffon Thomas: The Cavernous is curated by Amy Smith-Stewart, Chief Curator.

Chiffon Thomas: The Cavernous

The Aldrich Contemporary Art Museum