(Tuscaloosa, AL) – The Sarah Moody Gallery of Art is pleased to present the exhibition, Tom Stanley: Painting and Drawing and Discovering a Practice, from August 31 to October 3, 2023. There will be an artist lecture on Tuesday, October 3, at 4:30 p.m. in Gorgas Library’s Yellowhammer Room (second floor), and a closing reception following the lecture from 5:30 to 6:30 p.m., directly across the street in the gallery.
This exhibition is an examination of the artist’s studio practice. Stanley writes, “Over the years my work has moved back and forth between representational, or symbolic imagery, to the abstract; between color and a limited palette. If there has been any common thread it might be a process reliant on mechanical drawing, a graphic tool and technique I closely identified with during high school.” Stanley works in series with limitations of size, color and imagery and uses recurring shapes such as triangles and figurative elements of houses and boats. Typical media are acrylic on canvas and on paper. Although using common graphic strategies like mechanical drawing, silhouette, and sgraffito, his painting relies on evolving techniques that he has discovered in the process of making.
Gallery director Bill Dooley said, “Tom Stanley selected this body of forty-plus works spanning the years 1985 to 2022 in order to look ahead in his studio practice for its path. This coincides with his recent relocation to Durham, North Carolina (his native state). Pieces included in the installation demonstrate his mastery with the use of complex painted atmospheres upon which sit a harvest of delicately rendered shapes and forms that float before us. Stanley presents us with a delightful journey through an artist’s struggle to conquer resolution that contains intrigue, mystery and a discovery of time, depicted in altered painted surfaces. Shapes are lyrical and delicate.”
Tom Stanley has exhibited his work internationally at GALLERY twenty-four, Berlin; Galerie du Marché, Lausanne, Switzerland; Musée de la Halle Saint Pierre, Paris; and Casa-Museu Abel Salazar, University of Porto, Portugal. In the U.S., he has exhibited in many locations including the New Orleans Center for Creative Arts; Halsey Institute of Contemporary Art and The George Gallery in Charleston, SC; Hodges Taylor Art Consultancy and Gallery at Carillon in Charlotte, NC; Hampton III Gallery and The Fine Arts Center in Greenville, SC; if ART and 701 Center for Contemporary Art in Columbia, SC; Artspace, Raleigh, NC; SECCA (Southeastern Center for Contemporary Art), Winston-Salem, NC; and Lander University, Greenwood, SC.
Stanley is professor emeritus at Winthrop University in Rock Hill, South Carolina, where he served as gallery director and department chair until his retirement in 2017. He holds an MFA in painting and an MA in applied art history from the University of South Carolina and has completed numerous residencies and undertaken public art projects in the Carolinas. Stanley earned the Winthrop University Medal of Honor in the Arts and Elizabeth O’Neill Verner Governor’s Award in the Arts. His website is: http://www.tomstanleyart.com/bio.
The Sarah Moody Gallery of Art, supported by the College of Arts and Sciences and the UA Department of Art and Art History, is an essential part of the education and development of UA students and our community. Admission to the gallery is free. Hours are Monday through Friday, 9:00 a.m.–4:30 p.m. when school is in session. The gallery is located at 103 Garland Hall in the heart of UA campus on Woods Quad. Information about visitor parking is available on the UA Parking Services website. We invite you to visit us for a class, an opportunity to look at art, or just a quiet, meditative respite from the outside world. Visitors are not required but are encouraged to wear masks inside the gallery. Have questions or need assistance? Contact the gallery at 348-1891 or visit us online.