Expanding Utopia: A Studio Visit with Austin Thomas

June 2010

In the recent spate of articles about Bushwick section of Brooklyn, NY, innovative DIY arts projects and spaces, artists almost invariably cite Austin Thomas as a key early influence. Thomas opened Pocket Utopia – her groundbreaking salon, international residency program, and exhibition space in the neighborhood – in 2007, while the art market was still safely and unadventurously ensconced in the airtight studio/gallery bubble. She conceived of Pocket Utopia not as a commercial gallery, but rather as an extension of her own social sculpture. She had spent several years building large-scale “perches,” driving cross-country in a vintage 1973 El Camino and assembling portable social spaces of constructed tables, chairs, and sanctuaries as she went. Thomas wanted to push her projects beyond what had become increasingly comfortable terrain.

For Thomas, Pocket Utopia was a transitional two-year experiment, which she closed as originally planned in July 2009. Despite Pocket Utopia’s overwhelming success and the wonderful moments it produced, Thomas, who has returned to studio practice, doesn’t miss hanging the shows, mopping the floors, and cleaning the bathroom. For years she considered herself an itinerant artist who kept her supplies portable and worked wherever she could find a spare table. Now, in two studio spaces at the Elizabeth Foundation – one for drawing and one for construction – she has begun work on diminutive wooden models of the three-dimensional paper collages that she has made over the past several years. “The new work isn’t as literal as my earlier perches and social sculpture,” Thomas explained. “I’m thinking about issues of space and scale, and studying craft techniques from old furniture making books.”

This online exhibition features several of Thomas’s paper collages, sketchbook pages, and images taken of work in progress in her studio. In September, she will present the new work at a solo show at STOREFRONT in Bushwick.

Note: A longer version of this essay appears in the June 2010 issue of The Brooklyn Rail.