In observance of FotoFest 2022 and kicking off its 2022-2023 exhibition season, Hooks-Epstein Galleries is proud to present the photography-based works of Prince Varughese Thomas. "America the Beautiful" will open on Saturday, September 10, 2022, with an Open House from 12:00PM to 6:00PM. The exhibition will conclude on Saturday, October 15, 2022.
"America the Beautiful", the latest body of work by Prince Varughese Thomas, is a lens-based series exploring the layered complexity of racial and social divisions that pervade contemporary society. Through video and image, the works scrutinize the political and cultural divide currently found within the United States. The exhibition plays on multiple layers of meaning by embracing a citizen’s collective patriotism, while reflecting on the hypocrisy of the collective conscious, thereby compelling viewers to engage and resolve these difficult subjects on their own.
Prince Varughese Thomas is an Indian American immigrant, partly raised in India, and naturalized in the United States. Code switching between communities has been a consistent aspect of his life that has allowed him to recognize and explore various aspects of culture through his art. This multicultural experience through his formative years to adulthood has directly affected how he looks at society and attempts to examine places worthy of exploration and critique to raise larger questions about culture through his art. With an educational background and degrees in both Psychology and Art, the various interdisciplinary projects Thomas investigates speak about contemporary society through an array of themes.
A winner of Time-Based Media in Art Prize 7, a Texas Biennial Artist, an Andy Warhol Foundation Idea Fund Recipient, and a Joan Mitchell Foundation Emergency Grant Recipient, Thomas has presented his work in over 250 solo and group exhibitions at numerous museums, galleries, and is in various public and private collections.
Thomas received his B.A. in Psychology from the University of Texas at Arlington, and M.F.A. from the University of Houston. He is currently a Professor of Art at Lamar University.
