Award-winning Chicago artist Raymond A. Thomas will be featuring some of his work in the 2014 Harlem Fine Arts Show on Oct. 30. The opening night reception will be held at The Merchandise Mart at 222 Merchandise Mart Plaza. The reception will benefit The DuSable Museum of African American History and the South Side Community Art Center, which is celebrating 75 years in 2015.
Major Chicago African American publishers will be honored. Attendees will enjoy live jazz, hors d’oeuvres and beverage. Tickets for the opening night are $150.
Besides being an artist, Thomas is also an internationally award-winning filmmaker and creative director. He won 1st prize for best of show at the Chicago Museum of Science and Industry’s 2013 Black Creativity juried art exhibition. Thomas is the recipient of the 2014 IPA grant from the City of Chicago’s Department of Cultural Affairs. He graduated from the Art Institute of Chicago and served as Art Director and Creative Director for Johnson Publishing Company Inc., EBONY, JET and Fashion Fair Cosmetics for over 23 years.
His latest work, Perception/Reality (in the Age of Deception) is currently being showed at the Blanc Gallery, 4445 Martin L. King Drive. The Chicago artist is originally from St. Louis and said the recent Ferguson, MO. events stimulated some of his inspiration.
“I’ve been working on some of these paintings for several years, and it’s really inspired by our current state as African Americans,” he said. “When you look at the state of us, you see a lot of division. I believe that this is because we are under attack by a broad spectrum of multimedia campaigns that label us as inhuman. The work is meant to enlighten you to the deception that is going on.”
His multimedia work is supposed to inspire people to come up with their own stories and truths, he said.
Thomas’ Artists Talk is Nov. 8 from 2-5pm at the Blanc Gallery.
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