thomas intrieri is a self-taught artist. he began working at art galleries in chicago such as merrill chase galleries and wentworth galleries. thomas often visited the art institute of chicago and the museum of contemporary art chicago. after seeing consecutive exhibitions of francis bacon and cindy sherman, thomas began exploring painting. a trip to paris after surviving cancer led to many new discoveries. at musee d’orsay, floor to ceiling toulouse-lautrecs and the sheer scale of the museum galvanized thomas’ desire to explore painting in depth. with digital art, thomas experimented with pulling figures apart, while attempting to maintain beauty. color and structure dominated everything created. with acrylics on canvas, a new language taught him the importance of proper composition. after watching gerhard richter’s movie “painting”, he began to follow what richter, himself, follows. richter said “the paintings do what they want.” later, after watching a documentary featuring neo rauch, thomas was struck by rauch stating that once he came up with a character in his paintings, rauch had a responsibility to capture the world that character lived in. finally, rita ackermann’s collaboration with harmony korine cemented the idea of working toward an unknown conclusion that was not always in the artist’s control. this freedom exists today in everything thomas does, from digital art to acrylics on canvas. accidental strokes lead to surprise and discovery. colors that do not naturally live together are forced to compete for attention. thomas is also inspired by george rouy, bella freud, pam gordon, george condo, thom yorke, connor harrington, herakut, run the jewels, thomas houseago, massive attack, jacques louis david, jia aili, han bing, md tokon, georg baselitz and cecily brown. please reach out to thomas. he welcomes collaboration.