Whether it’s moulding a torso to form part of a layered entanglement or threading the memories of the past, Chiffon Thomas can do it all. Here’s how the Chicago native has taken the art world by storm.
Back at it again, Chicago, Illinois-born Chiffon Thomas is turning heads left, right, and centre in the art world. After a successful exhibition at Art Basel 2022, it’s fair to say that this interdisciplinary artist is heading to the top.
The Los Angeles living prodigy has worked worldwide, both online and in real life. With the texture of his multimedia a standing ovation, it’s easy to see why an extraordinary talent such as this was swiftly scooped up by two prestigious galleries, P.P.O.W. “in New York and Kohn Gallery in Los Angeles,” says Art News.
Thomas, who chronicles art with a creative process, and identifies as a non-binary queer person with a strong religious upbringing, says their meaningful works “examine the difficulties faced by defining one’s identity in contemporary society.”
When Thomas was young, the student at King College Prep met a teacher, Ms Chung, who has changed their life to this day. Although Thomas hated using embroidery initially, it soon transformed the now 30-year-old’s life for good. Dancing away with an MFA from Yale University and a BFA from the art institute of Chicago, they soon developed a multi-faceted practice incorporating embroidery, collage, drawing and sculpture to explore the self as split, fractured and transforming.
This interest in using tactile materials has manifested recently through window screens, found fabrics, and used Bibles and foam. From this, their work revolves around a crafted body in their work examining broader issues of gender, race and sexuality.
In 2021 Thomas was a featured honoree for Forbes 30 under 30 lists which naturally covered the art and style categories. Thomas’s investigation of “the disjoined relationships between form, function and identity is apparent in their pieces featuring dismembered body parts”, says Art Zealous.
A deconstruction and then through a form of reconstruction, Chiffon Thomas can give a body, object or material a new identity, stripping it of its former self and elevating the multiple possibilities it can process in life.