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Twenty Que With J. Matthew Thomas
The appearance of J. Matthew Thomas on our Earth is a rare and fortuitous event, akin to a special comet or eclipse that occurs once every 500 hundred years or so. He is the DaVinci of our day-and-age, a true Visionary bringing together community, education, environment and art with international events such as the PASEO, programs such as Studio TAOS and Pecha Kucha nights. His tenure at the Harwood Museum in Taos has seen him at the curatorial Vanguard in featuring previously unknown or undervalued works by Women, Indigenous, LGBTQ, and other underrepresented artists.
J. Matthew Thomas for New Mexico Magazine, Paseo director, architect Taos.
Thomas goes far in putting forth the work of others, yet his own visual art is aesthetically dynamic and intellectually engaging enough to warrant solo exhibitions in international museums and to have critical treatises written in its name. As an artist, he is experiencing growing recognition and acknowledgment: a highly successful group show in Manhattan alongside other Modernist greats such as Agnes Martin, Ken Price, and Larry Bell; followed by prestigious Residencies in Finland, Vermont, and another at the Santa Fe Art Institute this Spring.
“Artist,” however, is but one facet of the prism-like Thomas. Urban Designer, Architect, Educator, Professor, tireless Community Organizer, Museum Curator, Creator, Maker, Baker, Burner, Midwest-born, of Arab descent, Queer, alternately having resided in New York City, Beirut, and…
