Thomas Nonn

Thomas Nonn came to America as a young refugee from Hungary in 1957. Influenced by American action painting and obsessed with developing a language reflecting post-war central Europe, Nonn dedicated the last two decades to working with this somewhat melancholy color combination creating what he terms "material abstraction."

Rust plays a major role in these works and as Nonn’s mastery of this unusual painterly medium grows, the works increasingly appear to be the result of corrosion by the elements or the violence of man. As John Laughery suggested in his 1991 article for Art Journal, "Nonn's imaginative terrain has been blasted and burned like the earth itself, subjected to corrosive defilement: the copper he has applied is oxidizing into green, the rust sweeps over the canvas and wood like sediment left by retreating waters, and its soft tones of orange resemble a radioactive glow as much as the residue of industrial sources."

Nonn has made his own rust from iron powder that he suspends in an emulsion of industrial acrylic and then oxidizes with various strengths of acids. The textures are built up using rust in combination with sand, or marble dust and occasional but limited use of powdered earth pigments, oxidized copper o...

Master of Fine Arts, NYU
PhD in Art, NYU

Solo shows:
2010 Kouros Gallery, NYC
2008 Kouros Gallery, NYC
2006-2007 Kouros Gallery, NYC
2005 Cooperstown Art Association, Cooperstown, NY
2002 Denise Bibro Gallery, Chelsea, New York
1994 Hungarian Consulate, New York
1991 Anita Shapolsky Gallery, New York
1990 New York Collections, Tokyo, Japan
1989 Anita Shapolsky Gallery, New York
1988 Anita Shapolsky Gallery, New York
1986 Anita Shapolsky Gallery, New York
1980 New York University, New York
1972 Mint Museum, Charlotte, N.C.
1967 Carlsson Gallery, New York
1965 AM Sachs Gallery, New York

Selected group shows:
2014 Annual Professional Sculpture Exhibition, Century Association, NYC
2013 Annual Professional Sculpture Exhibition, Century Association, NYC
2013 COLLAGE The Century Association, NYC
2008 New Members Exhibition, Century Association, NYC
2008 Kouros Gallery
2008 Masters of Abstraction Anita Shapolsky Gallery
2007 Kouros Gallery
2006-2012 Annual Professional Painters Exhibitions, Century Association, NYC
2005 Visions of Abstraction, Anita Shapolsky Gallery
2004 Europe Day. Exhibition and Silent Auction at the Dahesh Museum celebrating the expansion of the EU (representing Hungary)
2003 Albright Knox Gallery, Buffalo New York
2003 "The Be...