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"The theme of my current work is the celebration of the Black experience through its historic symbols; cotton, roses and the African and African American ancestral image. Growing up in the south, I remember how relatives like Aunt Lucy Mae Whiteside, and Great Grandmother Cassie Grandberry Reed could simply stand in a doorway and exude a presence that would completely embrace the room. It is this respectability and singularity with which I wish to engage the viewer. As I continue on my present journey, I will always give homage to those people and experiences that brought me here. All the things I remember about my past, cultivate, clarify and define my now".
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Born 1968 in Dyersburg, Tennessee, Bryan Keith Thomas has always been influenced the grace of the elderly in our communities. Thomas received his BFA from Savannah College of Art and Design and his MFA from University of Tennessee in 1996. Thomas currently resides in Oakland, California, where he works as an Associate Professor at California College of the Arts, in San Francisco & Oakland CA. In 2006 Thomas received the “White House Honor” as guest of First Lady Laura Bush, for work with the Art in Embassies Program (Washington, DC.) His work has been exhibited locally, nationally and internationally at ArtJaz Gallery (“Visual Pathways)” Group Exhibition, Philadelphia, PA), Meridian Gallery (San Francisco, CA); the Joyce Gordon Gallery (Oakland, CA); Gallery Guichard (Chicago, IL) the American embassy (Dakar, Senegal); and the African American Historical & Cultural Museum - Fort Mason Center (San Francisco, CA) among others. His paintings are also included in public and private collections across the United States.
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B.F.A. Savannah College of Art and Design Atlanta, GA M.F.A. University of Tennessee Knoxville, TN
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