Denyse Thomasos

Denyse Thomasos (October 10, 1964 – July 19, 2012) was a Trinidadian-Canadian painter known for her abstract-style wall murals that conveyed themes of slavery, confinement and the story of African and Asian Diaspora. "Hybrid Nations" (2005) is one of her most notable pieces that features Thomasos' signature use of dense thatchwork patterning and architectural influence to portray images of American superjails and traditional African weavework.[1][2]

Denyse Thomasos
BornOctober 10, 1964
Port of Spain, Trinidad and Tobago
DiedJuly 19, 2012
New York City, New York, United States
NationalityCanadian
Education
Known forPainting

Early life and education

Born in Port of Spain, Trinidad and Tobago, Denyse Thomasos and her family emigrated to Canada in 1970, settling in Toronto, Ontario. Her father obtained a master's degree in physics from the University of Waterloo and was a high school teacher.[3]

Thomasos received her BFA from the University of Toronto Mississauga where she studied painting and art history.[4][5] [6] Her father died suddenly weeks before she entered graduate school, the grief from this loss influenced her early paintings.[7] Thomasos received her MFA in painting and sculpture from the Yale School of Art in 1989, after attending the Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture in Maine, in 1988.

Career and works

Thomasos was known for architectural structures and wall paintings.[7][8] Her work was, in part, inspired by travel, slavery and its psychological impact on people of color, and the prison-industrial complex. Thomasos researched and photographed super-max jail sites during the Bush years.[7][8]

Thomasos won more than twenty awards over the course of her career, ranging from the Pew Fellowship in the Arts in 1995, to a Guggenheim Fellowship in 1997, to a Millennium Grant from the Canada Council for the Arts, to the first McMillan/Stewart award from Maryland Institute College of Art (MICA) in 2009. She was awarded fellowships from New York Foundation of the Arts, and won residencies to Bellagio, Yaddo, and the MacDowell Colony.[8]

She was a professor at the Tyler School of Art at Temple University in Philadelphia,[9] and then (beginning in 1995), Associate Professor of Art at Rutgers University's Arts, Culture and Media Department.[4]

In 1994, Thomasos installed a mural entitled "Recollect" at contemporary artist-run centre Mercer Union in Toronto, Ontario. Her painting "Babylon" (2005) was acquired by Carr Hall at St. Michael's College in Toronto, Ontario.[3]

Thomasos' first solo exhibition was in 1995 at Alpha Gallery in Boston.[8] Her other exhibitions included "Inside" (2015) at Blackwood Gallery at the University of Toronto Mississauga; "60 Painters" (2011) at Humber Arts & Media Studios in Etobicoke, Ontario; "Formerly Exit Five: Portable Monuments to Recent History" (2010) at the University of Saskatchewan College Art Galleries in Saskatoon; "From Superjails to Super Paintings" (2010) at Olga Korper Gallery; "Swing Space: Wallworks" (2007) at the Art Gallery of Ontario; "Tracking: Bombings, Wars & Genocide: A Six Months Journey from New York to China, Vietnam, Cambodia & Indonesia" (2004) at MSVU Art Gallery in Halifax, Nova Scotia; and "Rewind" (2004) at the Art Gallery of Bishop's University in Lennoxville, Sherbrooke, Quebec.

Thomasos' work is in the collection of the Art Gallery of Ontario.[10]

Olga Korper Gallery in Toronto, Ontario hosted a memorial exhibition of her work in November 2012. Another posthumous show, "Urban Jewels," was hosted in 2013 at the MacLaren Art Centre in Barrie, Ontario, curated by Ben Portis.[9]

Personal life

In 2010, Thomasos married filmmaker Samein Priester at St. Basil's Church in Toronto, Ontario a year after the couple were married at City Hall in New York.[3] The couple adopted their child, Syann, in June 2010.[11]

Death

Thomasos died suddenly in July 2012 at age forty-seven, due to an allergic reaction during a diagnostic medical procedure.[4]

Further reading
  • Thomasos, Denyse; Jenkner, Ingrid; Nourbese Philip, Marlene; Verna, Gaëtane; Sirmans, Franklin; Mount Saint Vincent University; Art Gallery; Foreman Art Gallery (2006). Epistrophe: wall paintings. Lennoxville, Québec: Foreman Art Gallery of Bishop's University. ISBN 978-0-9736674-6-2.
  • Thomasos, Denyse; Chainey Gagnon; Art Gallery (2004). Tracking: thirty years in Canada, thirty years in Trinidad : Denyse Thomasos. Lennoxville, QC: Art Gallery of Bishop's University = Galerie d'art de l'Université Bishop's. ISBN 978-0-9693418-6-4.
  • Mitchell, Joan; Fishman, Louise; Korman, Harriet; Meyer, Melissa; Moser, Jill; Thomasos, Denyse (2009-01-01). Before again: Joan Mitchell, Louise Fishman, Harriet Korman, Melissa Meyer, Jill Moser, Denyse Thomasos. New York: Lennon, Weinberg, Inc.
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References
  1. "Artist: Denyse Thomasos". canadianart.ca. Canadian Art. Archived from the original on 2 April 2015. Retrieved 8 March 2015.
  2. "Denyse Thomasos broke out of her own mould". The Globe and Mail. Retrieved 2017-03-09.
  3. "Denyse Thomasos's short life didn't stop her from making great art | Toronto Star". thestar.com. Retrieved 2017-03-18.
  4. "Painter Denyse Thomasos, 47, Dies Unexpectedly"
  5. "Rutgers Mourns Artist, Professor Denyse Thomasos: Services Set for Friday, July 27 | Rutgers University - Newark". www.newark.rutgers.edu. Retrieved 2017-01-12.
  6. Artist CV
  7. "Painting and the World: A Remembrance of Denyse Thomasos". Hyperallergic. 2013-03-13. Retrieved 2020-06-18.
  8. thomsos, Carla Capizzi // denyse; FAS-N; NCAS; arts; culture; media. "Rutgers Mourns Artist, Professor Denyse Thomasos: Services Set for Friday, July 27 | Rutgers University - Newark". www.newark.rutgers.edu. Retrieved 2020-06-18.
  9. "Denyse Thomasos: The late artist's early years, on display at the MacLaren Art Centre | Toronto Star". thestar.com. Retrieved 2017-03-18.
  10. "Denyse Thomasos - Canadian Art". Canadian Art. Archived from the original on 2015-04-02. Retrieved 2017-01-12.
  11. "Gwarlingo - Samein Priester on Fatherhood, Film, & Loss of His Wife, Artist Denyse Thomasos". www.gwarlingo.com. Retrieved 2017-03-18.
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