“Tommy May: Mosaics and Machine” will be the first exhibition of the 2018 summer season at Quogue Gallery. Featuring 15 large to small-scale paintings that allow May’s full abstract expressionist force of color to erupt on canvas, “Mosaics and Machine” will be on view from May 17 to June 21, 2018, with an artist reception scheduled on Saturday, May 19, from 5 to 7 p.m.
With a focus primarily on painting, works on paper and alternative photography, May’s work explores multiple viewpoints of the landscapes that surround him. He interprets his immediate environment in an abstract expressionist style with the use of strong blocks of color, energetic brush strokes, symbols and motifs.
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"Running With Sonny" by Tommy May. Acrylic on canvas, 44 x 62 inches. Courtesy of Quogue Gallery.
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Tommy May learned his love for the abstract landscape studying at Savannah College of Art and Design in the photography department. The main goal for the artist in his body of work has been to capture on canvas the memories and feelings of his locales. Sources of his inspiration include the intricate landscapes of the California coast, the rugged terrain in the Midwest that he has studied while traveling across country, and the tranquil seascapes of East Hampton and Martha’s Vineyard.
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"The Dance" by Tommy May. Acrylic on canvas, 51 x 42 inches. Courtesy of Quogue Gallery.
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About Tommy May
Tommy May (b.1994) is an abstract artist living and working in Los Angeles and Martha’s Vineyard. May mastered analog photography techniques at Savannah College of Art and Design (SCAD), techniques that would eventually influence his future as a painter.
While at SCAD he was inspired by the photographer Uta Barth, who was showing at the SCAD Museum in Savannah. “Her photographs were these beautiful, out of focus scenes, of the light in her home,” May recalls. Seeing these large-scale works, May was inspired and began to create abstract images in a similar way. For his senior thesis, he created a body of camera-less work, exposing 4- by 5-inch negatives and then etching into them using various objects.
The artist’s early paintings were landscapes of Martha’s Vineyard. Like his photographs, these early paintings began to wash into abstraction until they were only fields of color. He experimented once again with line and symbols in his work. His current body of work again focuses on color, symbols, abstracted landscapes and automatic drawings.
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"Wading for Dinner" by Tommy May. Acrylic on canvas, 68 x 64 inches. Courtesy of Quogue Gallery.
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May and his partner, Gwen O’Neil, opened the Lee O’Neil Gallery in Savannah, GA in 2015. The two wanted not only to exhibit their own work but to show the work of their peers as well.
In October 2016, May and O’Neil relocated to Los Angeles, where they continue to exhibit emerging, mid-career and well-established artists in their gallery, now called Grey Projects LA. Together they have completed numerous projects and installations, including an installation for SCAD in Miami for Art Basel 2016.
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"Mosaics and Machine" by Tommy May, 2018. Acrylic on canvas, 75 x 94 inches. Courtesy of Quogue Gallery.
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"Chateau Lobby" by Tommy May, 2018. Acrylic on canvas, 48 x 48 inches. Courtesy of Quogue Gallery.
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ABOUT QUOGUE GALLERY
As Quogue’s first and only private art gallery, the Quogue Gallery is a dynamic space in the Hamptons where artists, collectors, and art enthusiasts can meet and share their common passion for serious artistic investigation and appreciation. The gallery’s mission is to present a program of artistic excellence not limited to any genre or medium. Its focus is on modern and contemporary art created by emerging, established, and historically important artists. An essential aspect of the mission is to establish the gallery as an active, vibrant, and inventive participant in the Hamptons art panorama, with artist talks and events that significantly contribute to modern and contemporary art discourse.
Quogue Gallery is at 44 Quogue Street, Quogue, NY 11959. quoguegallery.com
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