Barbara Earl Thomas

It is the chaos of living and the grief of our time that compels me, philosophically, emotionally, and artistically. I am a witness and a chronicler: I create stories from the apocalypse we live in now and narrate how life goes on in midst of the chaos. A central question drives me: What is our responsibility as humans to each other, especially in times of tragedy, violence, death, natural or human disasters? I credit my Southern parents, who migrated to Washington pre-WWII, for my ability to tell a good story. Dramatic tension helps me draw viewers in, finding their own meanings and connections, as I reference the issues most pressing to our own time—from environmental harm, gun violence, or the continuing needless loss of our young Black men. Sometimes I leave a bit of a fairy tale, or a Bible story, entwined with a current event; all are, at their core, archetypal struggles of tragedy, humor, and violence of our everyday lives.

Four Now; Leonardo Benzant, Barbara Earl Thomas, Adebunmi Gbadebo & Gio Swaby

December 1, 2020 to January 23, 2021

Claire Oliver Gallery

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Four Now Is A Presentation of The Gallery’s Booth at Untitled Art Fair,
Telegraphing the Excitement of Miami Art Week To Claire Oliver’s Harlem Headquarters
With A Dynamic Program of Virtual Talks

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PULSE Miami Beach

December 6, 2018 to December 9, 2018

Indian Beach Park, Miami Beach FL

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Claire Oliver Gallery, New York is proud to present
Impatient Obsessions: a three-person curated exhibition
featuring work by Barbara Earl Thomas, Bisa Butler, and Leonardo Benzant.

It makes no difference to the blackbird if he eats from our table or scavenges from our discarded piles. The future of his kind may not be altered. But that is not our fate. We’ve inherited the burden of knowledge and the grief of failed intention. We are not born blind, but we can choose to live that way. -- Barbara Earl Thomas

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Shattered @ EXPO Chicago 2018

September 27, 2018 to September 30, 2018

Navy Pier, Chicago IL

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At EXPO Chicago 2018, Claire Oliver Gallery presented a two-person curated exhibition of new works of art by Barbara Earl Thomas and Bisa Butler entitled "Shattered". One definition of this word is disillusioned. The definition of disillusion is to be free of illusion; the works in this installation speak to the possibilities that are in front of us as a society if we can become empowered by understanding that which holds us captive and dismiss these delusions that serve to comfort us in a time to come. Shattered also connotes fragmented. The works of Butler and Earl Thomas use small fragments of disparate materials which they bring together in a way that speaks to a greater whole.

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Chicago Expo 2017

September 13, 2017 to September 17, 2017

Navy Pier, Chicago IL

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It is with great pleasure that Claire Oliver Gallery returns to Navy Pier for EXPO Chicago 2017. This year the gallery has selected new works by two of our artists who are exploring extremely topical and poignant subject matter.

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Barbara Earl Thomas: The Blood Catcher and Other Stories

March 2, 2017 to April 9, 2017

Claire Oliver Gallery

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In Barbara Earl Thomas’ works of art, we are treated to a chaotic dream world, cross pollinated with fragments of bible stories, folklore and superstition brought forth from the artist’s ‘deep south’ childhood. Her personal history and current social narrative harmoniously coexist in these visual anthologies; there is never a single thread of delineation for the artist, as there a proliferation of concurrence in the world we all inhabit together. As Thomas’s grandmother often told her, we are all damned and redeemed every day. “Even if we cannot see it, there are amazing things going on around us at every moment” she says.

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Awards and Honors:

Grace Hopper Outstanding Achievement Award, 2018
Seattle Magazine‘s Hall of Fame, Arts and Culture, Seattle, WA, 2016
Governor’s Arts and Heritage Award, Individual Artist Award,
Washington State, 2016
Stranger Genius Award in Art, Seattle, WA, 2016
The Irving and Yvonne Twining Humber Award, Artist Trust, Seattle, WA, 2016
Women’s University Club, Brava Award—for exceptional achievements, 2016
Artist in Residence, Pilchuck School, Stanwood, WA, 2015
Artist in Residence, Museum of Glass, Tacoma, WA, 2014
Artist in Residence, Goathead Press, Tieton, WA, 2014
Mayor’s Arts Award, Office of Arts and Culture, Seattle, WA, 2013
Hauberg Fellowship, Pilchuck Glass School, Stanwood, WA, 2009
Neddy Award Nominee, The Behnke Foundation, Seattle, WA, 2006
Poster Design Award, Bumbershoot, A Seattle Arts Festival, Seattle, WA, 2003
Visual Arts Honors Program, Seattle Collects, Award, Seattle Arts Commission, Seattle WA, 2002
Jack Straw Writer’s Award, Seattle, WA, 2002
Seattle Artist Writer’s Award, Seattle Arts Commission, Seattle WA, 2001
Hedgebrook Writer’s Residency Retreat, Whidbey, WA, 1999
Seattle Artist Writer’s Award, Seattle Arts Commission, Seattle WA, 1998
Neddy Award Nominee, The Behnke Foundation, Seattle, WA, 1998
Artist Trust Tenth Anniversary Presidents’ Award, Seattle, WA, 1997

Collections:

21c Museum, Louisville, KY
Seattle Art Museum, Seattle, WA
Sound Transit Authority, Seattle, WA
4 Culture percent art collection – Evergreen State College, Olympia, WA
Sound Transit Authority, Seattle, WA
City of Seattle 1% Collection, Seattle, WA
Junior League of Seattle, Seattle, WA
King County Arts Commission 1% Collection, Seattle, WA
Microsoft Corporation, Redmond, WA
Seattle First National Bank, Seattle, WA
Safeco Corporate Collection, Seattle, WA
Tacoma Art Museum, Tacoma, WA
University Medical Center, University of Washington, Seattle, WA
Walker Richer & Quinn Inc, Seattle, WA
Washington State Arts Commission, Cedar Heights Junior High, Kent School District, Kent, WA
Western Washington State University, Bellingham, WA

Public Art Installations:

King County Metro Transit 1-90 Judkins Link Light Rail Station, Seattle WA, 2020
Multnomah County Central Courthouse, Portland, OR, 2018
Boulevard Park Library, Burien, WA, 2018
Sound Transit, I-90 Portal, 2015
Story Stones, Portage Bay Park, Seattle, WA, 2011
The Story House, Evergreen State College, Washington State Arts Commission, Olympia, WA, 2009
Electric Raven, Walden Triangle, Sound Transit, Seattle, WA, 2008
Art in Public Places – Raven Shouts Water, Seattle, WA, 2007

Selected Solo Exhibitions:

Barbara Earl Thomas New Works, Seattle Art Museum, 2020
The Blood Catcher and Other Stories, Claire Oliver Gallery, NY, 2017
Heaven on Fire, Bainbridge Island Art Museum, Bainbridge Island, WA, 2016
Story Line, Prints 2006-2013, Paper Hammer, Seattle, WA, 2013
Big Fish, The Meadows Museum, Shreveport, Louisiana, 2005
Elements, Evansville Museum of Arts and Science, Evansville, IN, 2005
Last Seen: Altar of Memory, an installation, Edmonds Community College Gallery, Edmonds, WA, 2005
A Fire in the Landscape, Francine Seders Gallery, Seattle, WA, 2003
Northwest Traditions, Tacoma Art Museum, Tacoma, WA, 2003
In Fire and Water, Francine Seders Gallery, Seattle, WA, 1998
Barbara Earl Thomas: An Exhibition, Olympic College Art Gallery, Bremerton, WA, 1997
The Book of Telling, Francine Seders Gallery, Seattle, WA, 1995
The Fallen House, Whatcom Museum of History and Art, Bellingham, WA, 1994
Requiem for a Tilted World, Francine Seders Gallery, Seattle, WA, 1990
Talking Back to the Storm: New Figurative Work by Barbara Thomas, Mitchell Museum, Mt. Vernon, IL, 1990
Art Gym: Gallery 2, Marylhurst College, Marylhurst, OR, 1989
Sheehan Gallery, Whitman College, Walla Walla, WA, 1985
Recent Work, Francine Seders Gallery, Seattle, WA, 1984
Executive Office Gallery, King County Courthouse, Seattle, 1984
Art Center Gallery, Seattle Pacific University, Seattle, WA, 1983

Selected Two-Person Exhibitions:

with Derrick Adams, The Henry Art Gallery, University of Washington, Seattle WA, 2020
Expo Chicago with Bisa Butler, Claire Oliver Gallery, Chicago IL, 2018
Expo Chicago with Gabi Trinkaus, Claire Oliver Gallery, Chicago IL, 2017

Selected Group Exhibitions:

PULSE Miami with Bisa Butler and Leonardo Benzant, Claire Oliver Gallery, 2018
Jacob Lawrence: Lines of Influence, SCAD Museum of Art, Savannah GA, 2017
Out of Sight, A survey of contemporary art in the Pacific Northwest, Seattle WA, 2015
Stereotype, Northwest African American Museum, Seattle WA, 2015
Good Neighbor, Seattle University, Seattle WA, 2015
Ink This, Contemporary Prints in the Northwest, Tacoma Art Museum, Tacoma WA, 2014
Inner Portraits, Bainbridge Island Art Museum, Bainbridge Is., WA, 2014
Best of the Northwest, Tacoma Art Museum, Tacoma, WA, 2013
Safeco Collection, The Wright Space, Seattle, WA, 2010
Northwest Women Artists 1880-2010, Whatcom Museum of History and Art, Bellingham, WA, 2010
A Concise History of Northwest Art, Tacoma Art Museum, Tacoma, WA, 2009
What is Black? , Seattle Art Museum, 2009
Building Community: Truth & Reconciliation, A Work-in-Progress Part II, Patricia Wismer Women’s Center, Seattle University, 2000
Drawing Revisited, Evergreen State College, Olympia, WA, 1999
Memory & Mourning: American Expressions of Grief, Washington State History Museum, Tacoma, WA, 1999
Civil Progress: Life in Black America, Greg Kucera Gallery, Seattle, WA, 1999
The Narrative Impulse: Visual Storytelling, Rental Sales Gallery, Seattle Art Museum, 1996
Wings, Rental Sales Gallery, Seattle Art Museum, 1995
Washington: 100 Years, 100 Paintings, Bellevue Arts Museum, Bellevue, WA, 1995
Art Works for AIDS, Seattle Center Pavilion, (also 1990), 1995
A Matter of Colors III, The African Connection, Pacific Arts Center, Seattle Center, 1994
The Northwest Art Collection of the Junior League of Seattle, Kinsey Gallery, Seattle University, 1994
The Art of Microsoft, Henry Art Gallery, University of Washington, Seattle, 1993
XX: An Exhibition on the Occasion of the Women’s Caucus for Art National Conference, Francine Seders Gallery II, Seattle, WA, 1993
Documents Northwest, The PONCHO Series: 1492/1992, Seattle Art Museum, Seattle, WA, 1992
Please and Thank Yous: 100 True Stories/Collaborators, Tacoma Art Museum, Tacoma, WA, 1991
25th Anniversary Exhibitions: The Middle Years II 1981-1983, Francine Seders Gallery, Seattle, 1991
Washington to Washington: Women in Art Today, Washington State Museum of Art, Pullman, WA; the National Museum of Women in the Arts, Washington, D.C.; and The Nordic Heritage Museum, Seattle, WA, 1989
Elizabeth Leach Gallery, Portland, OR, 1989
School of Art 1975-1988, Safeco Corporation, Seattle, WA, 1988
Northwest ’87, Seattle Art Museum, 1987
Aesthetics of the American Northwest, The Evans‑Tibbs Collection, Washington, D.C., 1987
Masks: A Contemporary Perspective, Whatcom Museum of History and Art, Bellingham, WA, 1987
Poetry in Art, Francine Seders Gallery, Seattle, WA, 1986
Figure: Narrative, Whatcom Museum of History and Art, Bellingham, WA, 1986
Seattle Painting 1925‑1985, Bumberbiennale, Seattle, WA, 1985

Print/Download Biography

Biagraphy | CV

Barbara Earl Thomas on The Geography of Innocence

"It is the chaos of living and the grief of our time that compels me, philosophically, emotionally, and artistically. I am a witness and a chronicler"

MoAD In The Artist’s Studio | Barbara Earl Thomas

join the Museum of the African Diaspora's own Demetri Broxton as he visits Barbara Earl Thomas in her studio.

Heaven on Fire

Barbara Earl Thomas discusses the inspirations and messages in the works featured in her Bainbridge Island Museum of Art exhibition spanning thirty years of art making.