This dynamic new body of work demonstrates Thompson Shumate’s mastery of storytelling while merging new contemporary pieces with the classical concepts from DuChamp to Ruscha.  The semi-autobiographical show includes an exciting variety of multimedia experiences for its viewers.  Central to the exhibition is the anthology of a contemporary cock.   The familiar rooster, icon of domesticity chosen for both its reality and absurdity, takes on a multitude of forms throughout the exhibition. Each piece is a rhetorical answer to today’s artistic questions of criticism, aesthetics, and concepts- and finds humor in the sincerity of its execution.

The Pump that Jack Used includes a multimedia interactive projection, drawings, sculptures and vinyl graphics.  Employing the design aesthetic of corporate culture, Anthony humorously exposes the underpinnings of oil executive politics and their relationship to our everyday lives.”

VIEW THE INTERACTIVE “THE PUMP THAT JACK USED.”

Purchased by Lester Marks, 2006
Lawndale Art Center

Collaboration with Robert Ziebell, Doug Michels, and Anthony Thompson Shumate

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George Orwell’s Animal Farm was translated into Arabic mechanically, and arranged juxaposed to the english counterpart with an illustrations.

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http://stepsandfalls.com

A sampling of a total of two hundred people were questioned over a two week period. One hundred men and one hundred women from different social and economic groups were asked to participate. I asked participants to list ten words that best described their gender. They could not collaborate with any one during the survey. Once completed, I imputed the information into a data base and sorted them. The text was then flowed randomly to create the image.

In Houston, a non-profit art organization named Buffalo Bayou Art Park, hosts an event for artists to make work during the holiday season in the urban streets of downtown. Serveral sites open for artists to choose from. During this selection process I witnessed several homeless people being moved to another location.

I decided to make a work that would give my honorarium back to the homeless community through an interactive, destructive work that would bring the community and art together in a time of need for the holiday season.

I reached out to a food distributor who matched my purchase of canned foods. I purchased mixed veggies, beans, chili, corn, green beans, and mixed beans. I removed the labels to reveal the silver, but also to allow for the excitement of unwrapping a gift. The ornaments on the “tree” were hand engraved with cliché Christmas effigies including: Milk and Cookies, The Three Wise men, Santa Clause, Holly…

Once the piece was complete and installed the public was open to taking the work at will, with no restrictions. Over the course of 5 weeks the cans were slowly opened and taken. Often times the tops of the cans were left at the site, but they were careful to leave the hand engraved can openers with the piece.

I was researching media bias, and I came across a study that opened the door for this work. It was a small study of CNN’s Cuban stories from 1997-2001. It analyzed the 212 stories that were broadcasted during that time, and made aware the notion of biases, direct or not. If CNN (and other news sources) report small stories in a very biased manner, what’s to say that they are not doing it on the larger issues?

The concept of the work was to transform a neutral, timeless object into a contemporary context. I selected a series of Living Bibles written in English and updated with American colloquialisms. I designed and illustrated a new dust cover for the eight books in the series.

My intent was to reposition the book as a work of fiction, stating on the cover that it was the number one selling novel of all time. Once the dust covers were completed and placed on the books, I resold them back to a second hand bookstore, Half-Priced Books, as works of fiction. I monitored the store weekly to see if the books had sold, and at the end of six weeks, five had sold under the new title.  One of the five was purchased by a Baptist Minister who found me, and had me sign the work so that he could frame it.

Commission, University of Houston
Sugarland Campus

The inspiration for Brazos Trace is the Brazos River, a major geographical feature adjacent to the campus. The project’s curving panels create the visual effect of a river descending through the architectural space. The river-like panels are patterned with images relating to the cultural and natural history of the Brazos.

The production and transport of cotton and sugar drove the economic development of the Brazos River region. The Lower Brazos, which snakes from the Gulf through the Coastal Plains, was sugar cane country, and the sugar cane plant is the dominant image of the first level. This sugar cane imagery is overlaid with a linear system suggesting water or air currents, an historic map of the Brazos River, and silhouette shapes of flying birds in reference to the river’s vital importance as a migratory corridor for wildlife.

The imagery on the second level is inspired by the cotton plant, historically, a major crop of central Texas. The panel is printed with magnified images of cotton leaf cells, which also suggest the surface of water. Cotton plant blossoms in various stages of development, the historic Brazos map, and shadows of migratory geese overlay this panel.

The imagery on the upper panel reflects the canyon country of the Upper Brazos. The linear pattern and abstract pool and stone shapes suggest river currents rushing around rocks and whirlpools. As the panel ascends toward the skylight, these images transition to air currents and islands seen from above. This upper panel is punctuated by a group of migratory hawks that create patterns of shadow and light.

The imagery has been scanned from original, hand-painted watercolors and then digitally printed on flexible, lightweight brushed aluminum panels. This material allows for some elements to be cut-out and pulled away from the surface, creating ever-shifting shadows, and taking full advantage of the rotunda’s 360 degree natural lighting.

The river’s original name in Spanish was “El Rio de los Brazos de Dios,” the River of the Arms of God. Brazos Trace is designed to visually “embrace” the viewer with encircling “arms” of imagery. Through its references to migration and agricultural cycles, it reflects the changing of the seasons, and it marks the earth’s rotation and revolution through its ever-changing shadow play. Its descending bands trace the course of the Brazos through the state, celebrating the river’s essential role in the pioneer settlement and economic development of Texas.

Based on the Texas “Ye-haw” and its connection with the “country” sub-culture, the “Jihad” belt buckles are fashioned with a cowboy hat at the top of the J. The projection is an illustrated version of both West Texas and many regions of the Middle East. Both of which are rich in oil and subcultured dress. The buckles are chased and repoussed and casted in bronze. They are then silver plated and polished. The leather belts are hand tooled with images of a bald eagle head, and an eagle in flight.

Based on both the Fat Boy Bomb and the Trojan Horse, this work explores the duality of icons and their juxtopositions when related to history. This includes a looped video of politically correct youths marching in line. It also pokes fun at the phallic nature of bombs…

While conducting research in preparation for another show, Anthony Thompson Shumate connected the fourteen Stations of the Cross to the top fourteen gas service stations. This connection along with the religious right’s interest in oil then became the driving inspiration for this series of work.

In work that combines both corporate design and contemporary art aesthetics, Shumate creates a subversive commentary on the modern American social landscape.  It is unimportant to the artist if the audience is fully in tune with all intellectual, artistic, and sociopolitical aspects of the work, but rather once having seen the work, audience members begin to participate in the commentary or issue that the work itself addresses.

Since the invention of the automobile and highway, the American zeitgeist has always been in love the with vestige of the open road, and what scenery they might encounter. Harking back to the familiar days of when cars were king, each stained glass is created to be a nostalgic memory of our American landscape. The series of works consist of fourteen framed stained glass pieces; eight landscape gothic arches, and five circular logo based works. Each of them displayed as traditional church motifs, including both gothic arches and circular cathedral designs.

The eight landscapes were pulled from the eight primary geological locations where oil is harvested. The five circular works are designed to reference the familiar 1960s services stations’ signage and the forms from locations like the Cathedral of Canterbury. This unconventional process began by creating the image on glass through the use of extruded and poured resin. This material then created a Tiffany like aesthetic while remaining sign-like, which was an important element to the work.

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It was revised and shown in Houston at the Barbara Davis Gallery in 2008.