TOMMY MAY

AIRLIGHT

February 12th, 6-8 PM

February 12th - March 15th, 2025

Henry Miller used the term “crepuscular” to speak of all things twilight. When we watch a sunset, it’s actually us (the viewer) who is spinning back and away from our subject. Which is to say that nature - like art- is a matter of perspective. Since he was a child, Tommy May has been obsessed with Thomas Cole’s “Course of Empire” paintings, particularly the last piece in this cycle, “Desolation.” Vegetation has begun its creeping reclamation of civilization in ruins. After moving to Los Angeles in 2016, these pictures took on a deeper significance: the atmospheric horizon at dusk, how a moonrise reveals different palettes in the night sky. The title of his solo exhibition at half gallery is “Airlight,” a scientific word describing light refracted through air pollution particles. Man’s complicity in diminishing the natural environment can result in beauty, a fringe benefit of our destructive behavior. May cites Ed Ruscha’s “City Lights” series and Mary Weatherford’s ability to harness a glow as influences. “The moon and sun are celestial markers, always in motion yet always returning, offering a daily reminder on the long arc of history,” says the artist. He imagines his painting from a very specific vantage point on Mulholland Drive near Lautner’s Garcia House, perched above the city like some contemporary Casper David Frederick protagonist. He wants to make small paintings that feel big and expansive. They are abstracted portraits of the day and more than that clocks ticking time in color. 

Tommy May (b. 1994, Alexandria, VA) received his BFA from The Savannah College of Art and Design in 2022. Recent exhibitions include Not a Figure in Sight, Half Gallery, New York; The Kid Stays in the Picture: A Readymade Show, Blue Door Gallery, Los Angeles; Primavera, Blue Door Gallery, Los Angeles; Merrick Adams, Dani Tull & Tommy May, Blue Door Gallery, Los Angeles. May lives and works in Los Angeles.