Eight years ago after a long hiatus from painting, and success as a jewelry artist, I decided it was time to re-invigorate the interest and drive I have always had to put paint on canvas. I renovated one of the spaces in my building* in New Orleans into a painting studio. Acquired all of the tools and materials necessary, set up the studio, and began a re-engagement with the practice.

Since that moment of decision, my work has always been non-figurative. It’s always been about objects. The microbiome, musical idioms, geometric forms, the heart form, which has always been a deeply loved geometric mystery, my jewelry objects, which turn out to be sketches for painting themes, interesting signage, safety stripping (I’ve been collecting unusual safety stripping images for years, intending to develop a book about it) and now…..objects in the landscape.

At this writing, I am in an Artist in Residency in a small southern central town in Portugal. Here I have discovered “Objectos na Paisagem”, Objects in the Landscape, in a revelatory moment, realizing that I’ve doing just this all along.

Collecting and being inspired by the usual and unusual things that humans make, discover, or imagine as the focus of expressing them in my work.

Being in a really different landscape and environment, (here it’s high desert) in a town that was established in 1519, in a landscape that has no trees for wood*, so all of the housing is based on ceramic bricks and cement, and all of the accompanying devices, and building methodologies to do so delivers of really unusual and interesting collection of objects.

It is a commonly held artist belief is that our mission is to realize and portray work that is meaningful to the observer, giving them an interpreted view that enhances their perceptions. We make for them what they cannot make themselves. This is my thinking whenever I am at the bench making work I know will be appreciated for its delivery of that perspective. And the same is true, now, when I am at the drawing board or the easel. (I don’t actually paint on an easel, just a flat wall, but you know what I mean).

So, this exhibition is revelatory for me, and perhaps for you, about the Objects in the Landscape that we are surrounded by. Not just in the physical landscape but also in the psychological, scientific, mythological and spiritual mindscape.

Objects that that are functional, useful, playful, but can also be baffling, curious, confusing and maybe frightening, but are unavoidable. I hope you’ll find this exhibition of my work as interesting as I did in making it.
Welcome to the PaintScape……

-Thomas Mann Messejana, Portugal Septiembre 23.2024

* My building is the Rose Tattoo, an old bar that attended in the late ‘70s. It  closed in 1982. In 1993 I bought the property and renovated it into a work live space that now houses Thomas Mann Design studios, Gallery I/O and me.

* The trees that were here where harvested long ago to build ships ( thinks Vasco de Gama) The only trees that remain are olive trees and they are everywhere, and many are ancient, cork trees, like for wine corks, because this is the Alentejano Vinho Region, where the other major crop is grapes.

Artist Biography

Thomas Mann, an icon of the American Craft Jewelry movement and a full-time practicing professional artist for over 50 years, describes himself as an artist working in the medium of jewelry and sculpture. He works with a variety of metals, thinking of them as painters think of their palettes — Each metal having its own color and luster. Inspired by parts from machines, electronic instruments, costume jewelry, and old postcards & photos, Mann’s recurring but always changing parts give his work its storytelling quality and theatricality. He calls this design vocabulary, which combines industrial aesthetics and materials with evocative themes and romantic imagery, “Techno-Romantic.”

Mann has been a featured artist in the Peabody Award-winning PBS television series “Craft in America.” His work is featured in the permanent collection of the Smithsonian Institute’s Renwick Gallery in Washington D.C., as well as the Museum of Art and Design in New York.

Thomas Mann lives and works in Uptown New Orleans where he oversees a jewelry design and production studio, sculpture studio, and gallery.