POMONA, CA.- New American Paintings is a national publication that began as an “experiment in art publishing,” and quickly grew to become the “most important series of artist competitions” for emerging artists in the United States.[1] New American Paintings has not only selected Pomona artist Thomas Pathé’s color field work to be included in this year’s 2007 Pacific Edition, but has also named dba Gallery in Pomona as the location for the exhibition.

Pathé’s work uses technology to drive home the idea of openness as he joins color and sculpture, intuition and objectivity. The digital output from multiple scans of an object or substance, (such as French’s mustard, a dirty Pink Pearl eraser, pencil lead, or peanut butter,) are converted into the exact corresponding latex paint. Pathé then layers the hues with varnish on inverted boxes made of birch and poplar¾boxes he has shaped, constructed, and sculpted by hand. It is this combination of opposites that ultimately gives a piece its presence and allows color itself to take on a mass and authority of its own. The viewer enters a world where color itself is an entity that can be meditated upon in a state of non-conceptual awareness. The work is unique in the New American Paintings collection, as it ultimately relies just as heavily on Pathé’s sculptural ability as it does his technical painting skills; this type of fearless exploration is exactly what excited Alma Ruiz, Juror for the 2007 Pacific Edition, as she took note of the region’s emerging work.

Alma Ruiz curates for the Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles, and has organized numerous exhibitions including MOCA Focus: Alexandra Grant, Carlos Garaicoa, and Sitestepper: Relational Architecture 10, among many others. In her statement regarding 2007’s Pacific Edition selection, Ruiz comments on the “increase in artists that paint” in a market that seemed to have been causing artists to doubt “their ability to sustain a career as painters at a time when collectors, curators and gallerists were seemingly more interested in other media.” Ruiz also comments on the encouraging range of work that is emerging from the Pacific Coast, and celebrates the fact that Pacific Coast artists “no longer feel they have to be validated by the New York art market.” This confidence is clearly reflected in the range of styles and subjects that artists are pursuing, from “abstract to figurative (including portraiture) to landscape (both rural and urban) to traditional (historical and still life).”[2]

Ruiz also speculates that the “availability of affordable studio space” has contributed to this reenergizing of painting, and this observation likely rings true to many downtown Pomona artists. In this sense, Pomona is almost a model community for burgeoning artists like Pathé, whose “Bing cherry” and “Aim gel toothpaste” will be featured in the New American Paintings show at dba256.

Although dba256 is a new addition to the Arts Colony, it has already made significant headway in accomplishing its mission to bring high quality art to the Inland Region specifically downtown Pomona. dba256’s first exhibition, titled Inland Emperors, showcased work from influential Inland Empire artists such as Karl Benjamin and Paul Soldner, and hosted over twelve hundred people during its opening reception. Curator Andi Campognone followed Inland Emperors with Liquid Light, a collection of paintings she chose to honor Southern California artistic innovation. Liquid Light was curated in honor of the James Turrell exhibit at Pomona College and the Light and Space show at the Claremont Art Museum. Featuring artists whose work embodies the indigenous California Light and Space and Finish Fetish movements, Liquid Light was accompanied by an essay written by Shana Nys Dambrot, a notable art writer, editor of “Flavor Pill” magazine, and contributing editor for “ART Ltd” magazine.

The fact that New American Paintings is choosing dba256 as the site for its exhibition is another affirmation of the growing influence of the Inland Empire on Pacific Coast art; the fact that the Art Colony’s own artist Thomas Pathé will be featured in the show will undoubtedly bring deserved attention to the merit of the work produced in Downtown Pomona.