Florian Thomas (artist)

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Florian Thomas (born August 19, 1966 in Neustadt an der Waldnaab ) is a German painter.

Life

Florian Thomas grew up near Weiden in the Upper Palatinate . From 1983 to 1986 he trained as a graphic artist and from 1989 to 1995 he studied at the Academy of Fine Arts in Munich . He has received several grants , including a grant from the German National Academic Foundation in 1993 , the State Prize of the Free State of Bavaria in 1999 and a working grant from the Art Fund Foundation , Bonn, in 2004 . Florian Thomas lives and works in Munich .

plant

Florian Thomas paints figuratively as well as abstractly , whereby both painting styles can overlap. In figurative works, for example, emphatically abstract passages appear in the form of blobs or debris . Most of the abstract works consist of vertical strips of color in a row. There are picture titles that seem poetic , like love bandit or openly disproportionate like the title The New Century with which a small striped picture was given. The same strategic game occurs in the figurative paintings, the titles of which hover between succinct locations such as Cannes , ambivalent comments such as hotel with stains, and deliberate pathos such as the joys of youth .

Recurring themes in his figurative pictures are tourist travel destinations, movement and rest, as well as their iconography in popular myths , such as those that arose above all in the post-war western period with general prosperity, consumption and status symbols . Thomas finds role models on old postcards, in magazines or on private amateur photos, of which he often makes the marginalized the focus of his figurative pictures. In it, the artist reflects the collective longings for strange and exotic places as well as the private representations of achieved social prestige . At the same time he comments on the two media with which he works: painting and photography.

My own photographic works are primarily designed as snapshots , but play with symbolic similarities, color distortions and everyday comedy.

Florian Thomas mainly exhibits nationally and was involved in important exhibitions on figurative painting in contemporary Germany. Sometimes he is assigned to photorealism , a categorization that the painter himself rejects.

Exhibitions (selection)

Solo exhibitions

  • 2014: "first view", Bernaducci Meisel Gallery, New York City
  • 2013: "impressionnant chaos", Wittenbrink Gallery , Munich
  • 2011: "Florian Thomas in the showroom", Galerie Neue Meister, Dresden; “Salto Backward”, Wittenbrink Gallery, Munich
  • 2008: Sfeir-Semler Gallery, Hamburg
  • 2005/2006: "looking south", Campus Galerie, Bayreuth; Art Association Bremerhaven

Group exhibitions

  • 2009: "Defiance & Melancholy - German Painting from the Dresden Albertinum / Galerie Neue Meister", Helsinki City Art Museum, Finland; “10 Years Campus Gallery”, Bayreuth; "Weidmannsheil", Vienna Salon Berlin, Berlin
  • 2007: “From the Frieder Burda Collection”, Museum im Prediger , Schwäbisch Gmünd; “On the beauty of the everyday”, Epikur Gallery, Wuppertal
  • 2006: "New Figuration", Hypo-Kunsthalle Munich ; “New acquisitions 2002–2005”, Museum Frieder Burda , Baden-Baden
  • 2005: “Rainbow”, Sfeir-Semler Gallery, Beirut, Lebanon
  • 2004: "Fehlfarben", Dresden State Art Collection , Georgenbau Castle, Dresden
  • 2001: “Souveniers, Souveniers”, Artothek , Munich; Art Association Landshut

Collections

literature

  • Daniel J. Schreiber , Heike Endter: Florian Thomas. I didn't know what time it was. Jovis Verlag, Berlin 2014.
  • Ulrich Bischoff , Heike Endter: Florian Thomas' art workshop. Prestel, Munich 2011.
  • Heike Endter: The long summer. Wittenbrink Gallery, Munich 2011.
  • Defiance & Melancholy - German Painting from the Dresden Albertinum / Galerie Neue Meister. Helsinki City Art Museum, 2009.
  • Sylvia Stephan: Florian Thomas. Gallery Wittenbrink, Munich 2009.
  • Museum Frieder Burda : New Painting, Acquisitions 2002–2005. Hatje Cantz Verlag, Ostfildern-Ruit 2006.
  • Ulrich Bischoff , Birgit Dalbajewa: Wrong colors. New paintings from Munich, Dresden, Leipzig, Berlin. Verlag der Buchhandlung Walter König, Cologne 2004.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Ulrich Bischoff: Visitors are always welcome . in: Art workshop Florian Thomas. Prestel, Munich, London, New York 2011, pp. 7 .
  2. ↑ Heike Endter: Somersault backwards. Florian Thomas in conversation with Heike Endter . in: Art workshop Florian Thomas. Prestel, Munich, London, New York 2011, pp. 12-14 .
  3. ^ Daniel J. Schreiber: Photorealism and Freedom. About Florian Thomas . in: Florian Thomas. I didn't know what time it was. Jovis, Berlin 2014, p. 9-10 .
personal data
SURNAME Thomas, Florian
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German painter
DATE OF BIRTH 19th August 1966
PLACE OF BIRTH Neustadt an der Waldnaab