Summer Squall by Tommy May
Tommy May

 

Tommy May 
 

Tommy May is an abstract artist living and working in Los Angeles and on Martha’s Vineyard. 

Born in Virginia in 1994, Tommy studied photography at Savannah College of Art and Design (SCAD), where he mastered analog photography techniques that would eventually influence his future as a painter.

As a self-taught painter, Tommy mostly feels a connection to the Abstract Expressionist

movement, specifically Color Field painters, whose objective was to create work anonymous of execution. The work of artists Helen Frankenthauler, Kenneth Noland and Morris Louis influence his process. While at SCAD, Tommy was inspired by the photographer, Uta Barth, who was showing at the SCAD Museum in Savannah. “Her photographs were these beautiful, out of focus scenes, of the light in her home”. Seeing these large-scale works, May was inspired and began to create abstract images in a similar way. 

Tommy and his partner, Gwen O’Neil, opened the Lee O’Neil Gallery in Savannah, GA, where they featured their own work along with the work of their peers.  In October 2016, May and O’Neil relocated to Los Angeles where they continue to exhibit emerging, mid-career and well-established artists in their gallery, now called Grey Projects LA.

Tommy spends his winters living in Los Angeles, where he is inspired by the urban scene, and his summers on Martha’s Vineyard surrounded by rural tranquil beauty. The contrast of environments helps define his abstract paintings, where multiple stylistic effects collide to create dramatic compositions.

Together, Tommy and Gwen have completed numerous projects and installations, including an installation for SCAD in Miami for Art Basel 2016. May’s career jump-started in 2015 when he exhibited with Sylvester and Co in East Hampton, NY. This exhibition of large-scale paintings introduced him to New York collectors and interior designers for whom he has produced several commissions throughout the years. Tommy has had solo and group shows in Los Angeles, Quogue, NY, Sarasota, FL, Savannah, GA, East Hampton, New York City, Los Olivos, CA and on Martha’s Vineyard. 

 

Tommy May talks about his process:

Artifacts Blog: Chaos from Order

 

Summer Squall
Tommy May
Acrylic on Canvas
46" x 66"
2019
$6,500
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