Artists
United States of America
Thomas Macie
20.05.24 14.06.24
Thomas Macie received his BFA in 2021 with an emphasis in printmaking from California State University Long Beach. His interdisciplinary practice uses found objects as the impetus for works on paper, paintings, and sculpture that interrogate the place of desire, escape, and truth in contemporary American consumer society. Relying on a process of collecting, resuscitating, and using the detritus of consumption he challenges the supposed inherent value attributed to objects.
Thomas came to ´ace to explore the city and make use of its local debris, with which he built his collages. He roamed the streets, scratched advertising posters in the public space, picked up found objects and brought them to the studio, where he constructed his pieces, which he fused with elements of contemporary printmaking.
ARTIST STATEMENT
My work aims to question our relationship with materials, often the discarded remnants of consumption, through challenging the viewer to find value in that which is deemed useless. Through the use of these found objects my aim is to comment on the absurdities of over-consumption, greed, and our collective conditioning as consumers living in a hyper capitalist society. While creating works with found objects and the detritus of consumption I attempt to challenge the viewer to find aesthetic value in the mundane: a torn piece of packaging, plastic single use items, broken and abandoned furniture. I enjoy the spontaneity and intuition of searching for these objects. This action is one way I hope to challenge and circumvent the traditional approach of buying materials to use in an artistic practice, instead assigning new meaning and value to the abundance of trash freely available as a result of our insatiable desires as consumers.
BIO
Thomas Macie
1995 | San Diego, USA
Lives and works in Los Angeles, USA
EDUCATION
2021 | BFA Printmaking. California State University, Long Beach, USA
EXHIBITIONS
2024 | Shaky Town. Known Studios presented by Public Notice Mag, Los Angeles, USA
2024 | Configurations. Southwestern College Art Gallery, San Diego, USA
2023 | Thick Pile. Best Practice, San Diego, USA
2023 | it’s only an island if you look at it from the water. Seated Horses, Los Angeles, USA
2023 | Fire in the Hole. the HOLE at Weatherproof, Chicago, USA
RESIDENCIES & AWARDS
2023 | IKEA Residency. Los Angeles, USA
2021 | Jamiesson-Pechstein Endowed Scholarship. School of Art, CSULB, USA
2019 | Recipient of Curators Choice 1st Place Honors. 25 and Under Art Showcase, Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego, USA
Related Activities
´aceNITE
City Pulse
Artists in dialogue
12.06.24 12.06.24
To close the May-June residency period, we presented the work of our residents at the ´ace studio. This exhibition brought together five artists (two working as a collective and one artist invited as part of the exhibition programme Semillero 2023) who, through their work, explored the tensions and complexities of our contemporary existence, who have immersed themselves in the pulse of the city, drawing from its urban landscape, its waste, and its sounds, materials and inspirations for their work.
Thomas Macie (USA) invites us to see the beauty in the discarded and the broken. Through his process of collecting waste and torn posters from the streets of Buenos Aires, he challenges the aesthetic value of what we consider useless. His work confronts us with our own craving for consumption and the transience of the satisfaction we seek in the material. He questions whether it is possible to find solace in what is abandoned, transforming rubbish into a mirror of our insatiable desires.
Through their piece ciclos, the collective formed by Sofía Fernández Díaz and Sofía Gabriel (Mexico-USA) creates a live performance that connects the public with the flow of improvisation and ancestral traditions. Using natural materials and handmade tools, their work is a celebration of femininity, life and change. The gestures and materials, from Grana Cochinilla to rusted metals, form an ode to the moon, highlighting the processes and cycles of nature.
María Villanueva (Argentina) uses the metaphor of the human body as a microcosm to explore internal systems and their reflection on the outside. Through ceramics, textiles and paintings, she creates an Atlas of the Body, a cartography that reveals human landscapes and desolate territories. Her work is a practice of healing and reflection, where the hidden becomes visible and the internal is projected outwards.
Lis Sundberg explores sound as a universal language that unites stories, emotions and traditions. Inspired by experiences in Berlin, China and her Quaker roots, her work is an invitation for audience participation to create a collaborative soundscape. In this piece, sound becomes a medium to explore solidarity and interconnectedness, building networks of roots that amplify the stories of all.
In addition, we present to the public the mural by Marian Calle (Argentina), artist in residence Palimpsesto de Pintura Mural thanks to a grant from Fundación´ace.
Together, these works invite the audience to reflect on the interconnectedness of our human experiences, the beauty in the everyday and the discarded, and the constant search for meaning in an ever-changing world. This exhibition is a celebration of the diversity of perspectives and a call to question what we take for granted, opening up space for new ways of seeing and hearing our surroundings.
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