JAMESA. THOMASSTUDIO

James A. Thomas (b. London 1971, lives and works in Brooklyn, NY) makes large dimensional cutouts and photographic prints that turn two-dimensional material into dynamic sculptural works that draw on real and inspired natural forms and symbols to create a contemporary vision of nature’s dueling forces of divinity and decay.

After graduating from the RCA, James began a career in the fashion houses of London, Paris and then New York City. In his work as a designer and creative director for couture and luxury fashion brands, he developed a distinctive method whereby his collage process of illustration became closely intertwined with his design and drapery technique. James ultimately evolved his expressive modern sensibility to art and illustration and his trademark cut paper works have been published in Vanity Fair, Vogue, Elle as well as publications and exhibitions.

James draws inspiration on form and color from a range of sources pre-colonial Central African and Egyptian Art, Henri Matisse, Romare Bearden, and the New Modern American Sculpture of 1965-75. Through his modern abstractions, he has built an instinctive visceral language of universal expression and story-telling.