Kite A

Thomas Ray Willis
"Kite A", 2013
Canvas, wood, acrylic gesso, string, metal staples
Marjorie Barrick Museum of Art Collection
Gift of the artist
2017.30

A framed legal-sized envelope with a cluster of circular images stuck in the top right corner. Each circle contains a small portion of a larger image. On some of the circles there are tiny white faces in profile, on others we see the red, blue, and white of the Union Jack; others are patterned with red, white and blue horizontal stripes. (written by Andrea Noonoo)

Raised in Las Vegas and currently living and working in New York City, Thomas Ray Willis teases the imagined boundaries between fine art and the quotidian world by transforming traditional art materials into household items such as mallets, beds, flower pots, and—during his 2015 residency at the Cosmopolitan’s P3 Studios—boutique bags and belts. His work has appeared at deCordova Sculpture Park and Museum, MA; Dorchester Art Project, MA; Socrates Sculpture Park, NY; and various Las Vegas galleries including the Contemporary Art Center and Trifecta. UNLV BFA 2009

In 1917, Marcel Duchamp’s Urinal inaugurated the idea that everyday objects could become art. A century later, Willis picks up a canvas and tests out the transformation in reverse.