ARTIFICIAL OASIS

Jena Thomas’s Solo Exhibition at the Fernando Luis Alvarez Gallery

STAMFORD, CT –  May 17, 2016  –  The Fernando Luis Alvarez Gallery is proud to announce the solo exhibition of contemporary painter Jena Thomas, opening on Saturday, June 4th at 6pm.

Thomas is a Florida native who earned her BFA from the prestigious Massachusetts School of Art and Design. In 2015, she completed her MFA at the University of Miami, culminating in two solo exhibitions at Wynwood Gallery in Miami and at FATVillage Projects in Fort Lauderdale. For 2016, Thomas was again selected as one of the 40 Top MFA students in the US by New American Paintings magazine for their MFA issue.

For her exhibition at the gallery, Thomas has prepared a new collection of work that builds upon themes from her previous exhibitions. Man-made structures shrouded in vibrant hues feature prominently and perform to create extraterrestrial landscapes made from objects easily identifiable to the viewer. Thomas takes what is familiar and exposes it as something unnatural. This teases our perception of objects, their origins and their usefulness. As countless scientists and made-for-TV documentaries have exposed, what has been created by man can easily be destroyed by nature. Thomas recreates the threshold of those realities, depicting the moments after abandonment but before environmental takeover that suspend fabricated structures in time. With her use of color, this scenario becomes all the more disorienting and dream-like, when matched with the tropical blues, hot pinks, and electric greens of her palette.

“Thomas continues to build on her narrative with each show,” says gallery director Fernando Luis Alvarez. “She never abandons her plotline but instead unearths new trajectories with each collection. We are excited to present her latest works, which demonstrate a bold new direction in which she is growing her craft.”

The opening for the exhibition will take place at the gallery on Saturday, June 4 and will remain on view through July. For more information or to request images, please contact Rebecca Hansen, Communications Director, at rhansen@flalvarezgallery.com or contact the gallery at 888-861-6791.

__

About the Fernando Luis Alvarez Gallery

The Fernando Luis Alvarez Gallery opened in December 2009 in Stamford, Connecticut. Since then, it has revolutionized the landscape of contemporary art in the state. Young and innovative, the gallery has built artists’ careers from the doors in and community from the doors out. It recently became the official sponsor of important conceptual artist Joseph Kosuth’s exhibition at the Louvre. It also worked with the Tate Museum and Frieze Art Fair on their prestigious acquisition fund, the Frieze Tate Fund, which was transitioned from Outset International to Frieze’s newest investor, Ari Emanuel of William Morris Endeavor.

Recently, the Gallery launched a new non-profit, Clementina Arts Foundation, to build on its community mission. The Gallery also acquires and represents prominent estate collections including most recently acquiring the estate of Valerie Furth, Holocaust survivor turned important collector, painter and author.  The collection includes Valerie's work, her book depicting her experience in the Holocaust and her important collection including artists such as Richard Diebenkorn, Sean Scully, Robert Longo, Frank Stella, Louise Fishman, James Rosenquist, Helen Frankenthaler and many other important artists. Other artists in the gallery’s stable include Arturo Di Modica, Nathan Lewis, James Gortner, Jena Thomas, John J. Bedoya, Rex Prescott Walden, Shelby Head, Kirsten Reynolds, and the late Damla T. Faro.

- ###  -