Kohn Gallery debuts “Antithesis” the solo exhibition by New Haven-based artist Chiffon Thomas at 1227 N Highland Ave, Los Angeles, with extended opening hours of 10AM – 8PM on Friday, April 9th and 11AM – 8PM on Saturday, April 10th.

The exhibit runs through May 21st with self guided and staff guided tours available.

Chiffon Thomas’ practice is an interdisciplinary one, ranging across hand embroidered mixed media painting, collage, drawing, and sculpture. Identifying as a non-binary queer person of color, Thomas’ powerful figurative assemblages examine the difficulties faced by defining one’s identity in contemporary society.

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Through contorted figures and fractured compositions that float seamlessly between historical and contemporary styles and references, Thomas presents a process of becoming: a transition from dysmorphia to metamorphosis.

-Thomas In His Own Words

through fracturing faces, I try to represent how individuals compartmentalize trauma and sometimes create multiple identities in order to heal. Sometimes this is how dissociative identity disorders develop. It’s also emblematic for when people of color have to color-switch. You often have to split into multiple identities and veil who you most comfortably are.”

As an amalgamation of ideas about capitalism in relation to Christianity, Antithesis provides an indication of how social constructs are being corrupted. Inspired by Colonial design, Thomas uses deconstructed materials from a New England demolition site to build an array of sculptures ranging in size along with a selection of works on paper. The silicon bodies in these sculptures wear the parts of building materials – deconstructed and reconstructed several times from cement, foam, rigid plastic and more. Thomas builds housing units for the sculptural body using readymade materials, finding interior parts to repurpose that add an interpretation of function. Thomas states, “I destroy and then I reconfigure”.

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