Thomas Sleet had a solo exhibition in 2002 at the Mitchell Museum of Cedar Hurst, Mt. Vernon, IL, and has shown at Elliot Smith Contemporary Art, St. Louis and the Columbus Museum of Art, Columbus, OH. He has hosted art residencies and seminars at Webster University, the University of Missouri-St. Louis, the College School and the School for Visual and Performing Arts, St. Louis. He received a B.F.A degree in ceramics with a minor in sculpture in 1988 from Washington University.
Using commonly available materials, Sleet's work shows the unpredictable effects of natural phenomena on synthetic objects and hybrid material. A combination of painting a sculpture, texture and color it weaves themes of organic structure with systems of individual marks. By applying cement materials to varying substrates,, a dynamic tension is achieved through the geometry of repetition.
"The culmination of this work is the purification of form- the merging of organic structure with geometry, " he says. "Tortured distressed surfaces, a unique merging of form and texture, positive and negative, color and space, unite as one."
