Kim Thoman

I've been a California Bay Area artist and art professor for over 30 years. Today, I'm full time artist, yet, I never stopped making art while I was teaching.

The basis for my art is a belief that duality exists in everything. I am aware of the presence of opposing forces in the world around me, such as intellect and intuition, male and female, stillness and movement, body and soul, light and dark, the organized and chaotic, and of course, life and death. My artwork aims to bring the duality of contrasting energy forces into balance. My desire is to present opposite sides of any truth in order to see the real picture. In addition to the philosophical concerns in my work, natural elements emerge that are symbols for my own growth.

I am deeply connected to historical art methods. My love of painting owes a debt to the Abstract Expressionists, particularly Joan Mitchell, Arshile Gorky and Robert Motherwell for their expressive forms, as well as the California artists, such as Nathan Olivera and Jay DeFeo. All, for their attempts to externalize the internal. At the same time, I am drawn to the world of technology and the mechanics of the external world. Once again, duality feeds my creativity.

University of California, Davis, California, Art Department, 1966-68
University of California, Berkeley, California, Bachelor of Arts, 1972
University of California, Riverside, California, Education Credential, 1973
San Francisco State University, San Francisco, California, Master of Arts: Ceramic Sculpture, 1979

SELECTED SOLO EXHIBITIONS
2019 Natural Dualities, Hardin Center for the Arts, Gadsden, Alabama.
2018 Equilibrium, Olive Hyde Art Gallery, Fremont, California. (3-Woman Exhibition)
Natural Dualities, Goddard Center for Visual & Performing Arts, Ardmore, Oklahoma.
2016 Natural Dualities, Peninsula Museum of Art, Burlingame, California.
2015 The Mendocino Art Center, Mendocino, California.
Natural Dualities, Anderson Center for the Arts, Anderson, Indiana.
Natural Dualities, Lillian Davis Hogan Galleries, Saint Mary’s University of Minnesota, Winona, Minnesota.
2013 Shadravan Gallery, Oakland, California.
2010 Monterey Peninsula College Art Gallery, Monterey, California.
2009 “W” San Francisco, California.
2008 SFMOMA Artists Gallery, San Francisco, California.
Oakopolis Gallery, Oakland, California.
2006 California Institute of Integral Studies, San Francisco, California.
2005 Stanford Art Spaces, Stanford University, Palo Alto, California.
Dream Institute of Northern California, Berkeley, California.
2003 Perspective Gallery, Virginia Tech University, Blacksburg, Virginia (catalogue).
1998 Quantum Corporation, Milpitas, California.
1997 Gallery of the Center for Psychological Studies, Albany, California. ...