Bio

THH70 was born in human form in 1970 in Los Angeles, California, but the persona of his nom de plume was conceived in 1994 as a stage name for his other career as a recording artist. He is now an accomplished visual artist, with his works in private and corporate collections on every continent. Since 2000, he has sold over 1300 original mixed media pieces, and his website—thh70online.com—continues to receive thousands of hits per month. To date, THH70 has shown in solo and group shows in galleries and museums across the United States and the Caribbean, and has appeared in print and online publications worldwide.

THH70 is recognized for his unique artistic approach that he has branded “Lo-Fi Urban
Contemporary,” combining crude painterly techniques and utilizing materials and media (that include everything from acrylics and spray paint to household products like Windex and X-14 mildew remover) with his own style of raw illustration and stream-of-consciousness linguistics.

In 2001, sensing the online absence of a hub for like-minded artists to collectively exhibit their work, THH70 created AOA: Alternative Online Artists, an online, juried collective of approximately 30 artists. Since being founded, AOA has selected and maintained a roster of the nation’s most diverse and prolific alternative artists (with styles encompassing Pop, Outsider, Graffiti, Fluxus, Dada, Contemporary, Modern, Lowbrow, Urban, Abstract, Graphic Design, and Folk). The waves made by AOA artists continue to crash upon the art world, almost a decade later.

In late 2005, THH70 was interviewed (and appeared in) “America’s Chemical Angels,” a documentary by filmmaker Oxana Chumak about the overmedication of children with ADD/ADHD. In addition to the interview footage, THH70’s seminal 2002 painting RITALIN® is featured prominently in the film, as well as in its promotional advertising.

2007: gallery hiatus.

2008: a busy year with multiple shows and appearances, showing of work alongside some of Contemporary Art’s finest. Also in 2008: the release of THH70’s self-published monograph THH70: an exploration of text, imagery, and other crazy shit , this a 94-page full-color book containing a selection of more than 100 paintings spanning the previous 3 years. In ’08, THH70 also became a contributing editor to Mad Skills Magazine, an online arts & culture magazine in Europe.

2009 saw THH70’s participation in an Obama-themed art exhibit in the Dominican Republic, where our hero was the only artist to be specially commissioned for his work in this show containing scores of works by internationally-renowned artists. In September 2009, five THH70 paintings were exhibited in a museum retrospective at The Contemporary Art Center of Virginia, which runs thru January 2010 and has already received massive critical acclaim. And in 2010, THH70 will be featured in the book “Designing Obama,” a 360-page book chronicling the grassroots art movement spawned by the 2008 Presidential Election and written by Scott Thomas, the Design Director of the historic campaign.

THH70 divides his time between Dallas, Texas and Los Angeles, CA.

Artist Statement

I am just as much a linguist and commentator as I am an artist.

The foundation of the art that I create depends equally upon wordplay as it does upon imagery...or its lack. The written word, to me, is just as important a feature of Contemporary Art as is any “picture” that one can paint. I get off on words playing off each other, how re-arranging them can create an entirely new meaning/new meaning entirely, and how words themselves can put your tongue in your cheek and create, all by themselves, social commentary.

For me, it’s all stream-of-consciousness—going into a painting with nothing more than a sense of urgency and some text, then suiting the words with imagery, color and texture. Acrylics, spray paint and blends of household chemicals: these are my media. The unlikely combination of materials produces a highly distressed, vivid and layered end result that conveys urgency, urgency, URGENCY.

It’s “Lo-Fi Urban Contemporary Art,” to me, and it contains a cacophony of raw illustration, imagery and text. Because every viewer comes with his and her own associations with words, with images, with colors and textures, each of my pieces speaks to each viewer differently, making each viewing an intensely personal experience.