The Sparrow: Local Exhibition Partnership Project
Now on View at The Sparrow Hotel
1070 W. Grove St | Boise, ID 83702 | sparrowboise.com
On the Mark: Artwork by Dave Thomas
January 24 – June 30, 2025
Utilizing both traditional and non-traditional art media, Dave Thomas creates abstract paintings and drawings that act as diaries of making. Ready-mix concrete, enamel spray, and other construction-based materials dance through his compositions alongside the familiar art materials of graphite, India ink, and acrylic paint. Bold, direct marks are laid down, scraped into, and poured over. The act of making is palpable through gestural marks as evidence of the artist swooping his arm or pouring from a can. The white canvas is allocated prominent space in his compositions to reinforce the surface and give it power.
Born in Fresno California, Dave Thomas grew up in Santa Cruz, California. He has lived in Boise for the last 29 years and divides his time between Eagle and McCall, where he maintains a studio for the summer months. In 1972, Thomas received his BFA from California Institute of the Arts, and he went on to receive his MFA from California Institute of the Arts in 1974.
Exhibition organized by the Boise Art Museum
Image: Dave Thomas, Doctor My Eyes, 2023, ready-mix concrete patch, India ink, graphite, acrylic, and enamel spray paint on canvas, 24″x18″, Courtesy of the Artist.
To Talk About Trees: Artwork by Kirsten Furlong
July 11, 2024 – January 22, 2025
“I create images and objects about human, animal, and plant interactions in places where these relationships are defining the Anthropocene. My recent projects relate to nuclear waste in the high desert of the western United States, declining bird habitat in the grasslands of the Great Plains, and the effects of climate change on species everywhere. In the work, animals and plants serve as emblems of nature and as metaphors for human desires. I use detail, repetition, and patterns inspired by those encountered in the natural world as representational tools, while also using mark making to express empathy, loss, and longing.
“There is such an incredible complexity of ideas tied to the land and species that reside therein, which takes on a particular quality here in the Western U.S., where cultural beliefs related to the hierarchy of species, manifest destiny, and rugged individualism steer many political and social decisions and policies related to the land, humans, and animals. I see my studio practice and vision as an artist as a counter narrative to these ideologies.”
-Kirsten Furlong
Exhibition Organized by the Boise Art Museum
Images (top-bottom): Kirsten Furlong, Hawk in the Anthropocene (installation detail), 2017, ink, acrylic, and colored pencil on Tyvek, Courtesy of the Artist. | Kirsten Furlong, Unchopping a Tree (installation detail), 2013-17, metal leaf, acrylic, ink, hemp twine, thread, and nails on wood, Courtesy of the Artist.
About the Local Exhibition Partnership Project
Boise Art Museum and The Sparrow Hotel are thrilled to partner to initiate this collaborative art exhibition project focused on showcasing contemporary artists who are living and working in Boise, Idaho.
A new exhibition, featuring a Boise artist, will be presented every six months. We are proud to help increase the opportunities for Boise artists to take creative risks and expand their artistic practices.
