Review of “Pillow Book as Inheritance” at Big Medium Gallery by Joseph Bravo

read the review by Joseph Bravo

“Thomas’ work challenges harsh distinctions in aesthetic dogmas. Her artwork defies easy categorization. It is neither modern nor traditional; it is both figurative and conceptual. The artist refers to historicism but eschews any sense of anachronism. Her artwork is aware of pinup illustration but challenges its conventions. Thomas’ imagery and use of materials both invokes pop culture’s glamor but simultaneously mocks its fatuousness. The artwork can at once be viscerally pornographic yet militantly feminist. Through her artwork, Thomas questions the sufficiency of the culture’s social mechanisms of information transmission including how the ideas of taboo, political correctness, shame, rhetorical obfuscation and masculine heteronormative pornography complicate, corrupt and confound the inter-generational transmission of sexual knowledge. In order to explore these issues, her work strides painting, sculpture and performance.” – Joseph Bravo