Los Angeles: Awakened by Matthew Thomas ’s Spiritual Abstractions

Los Angeles

March 16, 2022 • View in browser

Awakened by Matthew Thomas’s Spiritual Abstractions

By sharing his particular visual language, Thomas hopes to trigger our own connection to the divine. | Allison Conner

A gentle soundscape greets you upon entering Enlightenment, a survey of paintings and a site-specific installation by artist and art professor Matthew Thomas. Tucked within one of the galleries at the California African American Museum (CAAM), Enlightenment offers respite from the hustle and bustle of the nearby Exposition Park. It felt like I had wandered into a verdant oasis, lulled by the sounds of water by a stream and wind blowing through grass. A sense of tranquility washed over me as I took in Thomas’s geometric abstractions, soaring harmonies of color and movement presented on wood panels of various shapes.

UP THE COAST

Hong Kong Painter Wesley Tongson and the Lineage of Chinese Landscape Art

At BAMPFA, Tongson’s paintings hang alongside works from the museum’s collection of traditional Chinese ink paintings. | Emily Wilson

The Photos Left Behind From the Chinese Exclusion Era

At the California Historical Society, curator Erin Garcia contrasts how Chinese people were portrayed in the press with the dignified studio portraits taken in Chinatown. | Emily Wilson

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