About the artwork
In this untitled sculpture, Jeremy Thomas continues his fascinating exploration of metal as a living material, capable of breathing, bending and transforming under air pressure. The work, characteristic of his series of so-called "inflatable" sculptures, is born of a singular process: Thomas first welds steel or aluminum plates into closed geometric shapes, then inflates them with compressed air, forcing the material to deform, twist and blossom according to its own physical laws. Here, shiny yellow metal hugs the curve of rusty iron, creating a tension between softness and resistance, control and chance, industrial and organic.
The shiny surface, coated with a smooth pigmented powder, contrasts with the rough, oxidized texture of the sculpture's core. This chromatic dialogue, between the artificial brilliance of yellow and the earthy warmth of rust, evokes the encounter between machine and nature, between mechanical precision and the randomness of the living. At once monumental and sensual, the piece seems frozen in an expanding movement, like a metal bubble about to burst.
Expert opinion
This sculpture epitomizes Jeremy Thomas' approach, in which creation becomes a physical, intuitive experience. Refusing to "tame" the material, the artist gives it the freedom to shape itself under pressure, leaving the result to the random internal tensions of the metal. This process transforms each work into a unique, irreplicable form, a testimony to the collaboration between the artist, the material and the invisible force of air.
The work is distinguished by the quality of its formal balance: the folds and swellings of the metal compose a fluid, almost organic geometry, while the color, applied with industrial rigor, accentuates its sensual, sculptural dimension. Through this tension between the calculated and the unpredictable, Thomas renews the language of contemporary sculpture. Untitled fully expresses his philosophy: to make art not as a gesture of mastery, but as an act of play, where science and poetry unite to give birth to forms as powerful as they are fragile.
About the artist
Jeremy Thomas (b. 1973, Mount Vernon, Oklahoma, USA) is an American sculptor with an international reputation for his exceptionally inventive formal "inflatable" metal sculptures. He lives and works in Española, New Mexico, where he has been pursuing research at the crossroads of science, art and matter for over two decades. A BFA graduate from the College of Santa Fe (1996), he trained with master blacksmith and MacArthur Grant winner Tom Joyce (1995), after discovering intaglio engraving alongside abstract artist Jean Richardson in Oklahoma City. This double filiation, between rigorous craftsmanship and plastic freedom, nourishes a singular body of work in which sculpture becomes a balancing act between control and accident.
Thomas' aesthetic universe is inspired by the industrial and mechanical world: agricultural machinery, muscle car bodies, tools and cosmetics nourish his powerful, sensual forms, covered in brightly colored powders or natural rust patinas. Her sculptures, at once hard and soft, geometric and organic, embody the meeting of opposites - between the planned and the spontaneous, the masculine and the feminine. Refusing the status of "artist", Thomas defines himself above all as a maker of objects, seeing creation as a pragmatic and playful act: "Art is the science of play", he asserts, claiming an instinctive approach nourished by daily life rather than art history.
His work can be found in major public and museum collections, including the Albright-Knox Gallery (Buffalo), the New Mexico Museum of Fine Arts (Santa Fe), the Scottsdale Museum of Contemporary Art (Arizona) and the Frederick R. Weisman Art Museum (Malibu). He has had numerous solo exhibitions, including at the Phoenix Airport Museum (Airborne, 2019), Scottsdale Museum of Contemporary Art, Kunsthalle Wiesbaden (Germany, 2016) and Museum Wilhelm Morgner (Soest, Germany). Represented by several major galleries in the United States and Europe - Charlotte Jackson Fine Art (Santa Fe), Bentley Gallery (Phoenix), Galerie Richard (Paris and New York) and Galerie Renate Bender (Munich) - Jeremy Thomas has established himself as one of the most original figures in contemporary American sculpture, transforming metal into a living, poetic material.
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