Thomas Anfield | New Figures

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Thomas Anfield, “Figure at Night (cropped),” 2023

acrylic on canvas, 30 x 24 inches. Courtesy of the Gallery.

Opening Reception: October 7th, 2023, from 1 – 4 pm

Representing the culmination of lifelong research into the figure, the body depicted by Thomas Anfield is not confined by binary norms; rather, it is a vessel of limitless possibilities, a space where fluidity and transference take center stage.  Investigating the gender fluid body for five decades, contemporary artist, Thomas Anfield, exhibits a solo exhibition at the Petley Jones Gallery.

Informed by his multidisciplinary dance performances in Butoh, a powerful and avant-garde performance art originating in Japan, Anfield captures figures in their own performance on the canvas. In Butoh, the body is painted completely white, becoming a place for transference, like a screen onto which the audience can project themselves onto the dancer. By placing this dancing figure at the center of the artistic narrative, the exhibition empowers individuals to reimagine their relationship with their own bodies and identities.

For Anfield, the goal of art is not realism but symbolic power, or essence – the more symbolic the more universal. The result of his explorations are figures with simplified masks or doll-like features, emphasizing the universality of the experience. The focus is on the body’s movement and the emotions it conveys.