Ian Thomas Solo Exhibition

Opening Wednesday 28 April from 6-9 pm (please use Eventbrite link below if you wish to attend due to current Covid restrictions)

Gallery trading hours from 29 April to 3 May : 12 pm - 6 pm.

“Conspicuous Leisure…an existence so far removed from all menial necessities that clothes can be worn which make any kind of physical labour difficult if not impossible. Dress of this kind, so long as it is manifestly sumptuous, marks the wearer as a member or a dependant of the leisure class, or at least as somebody who for a time can ‘dress the part’ of a member of that class. We admire the clothes of indolence almost instinctively, feeling them to be elegant and dignified, belonging as it were, to a world in which the wolf has been kept far from the door.”
Quentin Bell, On Human Finery

"Once a year, my mum descended the stairs of our suburban semi-detached house dressed for the annual dinner and dance at the insurance company where my father spent his entire working life. She was the most exquisitely glamorous creature I had ever seen in my life.

This show is a love letter to my mum who left us last year; to sequins, shimmer, and the froth of tulle; and to every little queer kid who knows the pleasure of playing furtively with their mum’s jewellery box.

Sewing, pinning, tying, crafting and signifiers of domesticity are mimicked, retraced and abstracted, honouring traditions associated with the home and the woman who maintained mine. In its essence, it is about touch, the transient nature of fabric and memory, and a reconnection to childhood escapism and dreams of glamour."
Ian Thomas

“Like charity, I believe glamour should begin at home.”
Loretta Young