Lava Thomas, Mother I, 2009‍

Join us for a conversation about the current exhibition Lava Thomas: Beyond.

‍Beyond is a two-part exhibition that weaves together early and new works by West Coast artist, Lava Thomas. In artworks created since the early 1990s, Thomas approaches both a physical and spiritual ‘beyond’—exploring the accepted limits by which we define ourselves, our bodies, and our histories, and then considering what might lie just outside those limits. Incorporating drawing, photography, sculpture, and installation, Beyond represents a meditation on the cyclical passage of time that is equally informed by science and faith, the tangible and the mysterious.

‍Lava Thomas is a native of Los Angeles, California. She studied at UCLA's School of Art Practice and California College of the Arts, where she received her BFA. Her diverse artistic practice includes drawing, painting, sculpture, printmaking and installations.

‍Jacqueline Francis, PhD. is a writer and art historian. She is the author of Making Race: Modernism and "Racial Art" in America (2012) and a co-editor of Romare Bearden: American Modernist (2011). Her interview with Lava Thomas is included in the Beyond catalogue.

Purchase Advanced Tickets here

‍This program is Co-Presented by the Departments of Ceramic and Visual & Critical Studies at the California College of Arts (CCA).