Tommy May (b.1994) is an abstract artist living and working in Los Angeles and Martha’s Vineyard. May studied at Savannah College of Art and Design (SCAD), where he mastered analog photography techniques that would eventually influence his future as a painter. While at SCAD he was inspired by the photographer, Uta Barth, who was showing at the SCAD Museum in Savannah. ‘Her photographs were these beautiful, out of focus scenes, of the light in her home’. Seeing these large-scale works, May was inspired and began to create abstract images in a similar way. For his senior thesis, May created a body of camera-less work. He exposed 4” x 5” negatives and then etched into them, using various objects. May’s early paintings were landscape paintings of Martha’s Vineyard. Like his photographs those early paintings began to wash away into abstraction until they were only fields of color. He again experimented with line and symbols in his work. This current body of work again focuses on color, symbols, abstracted landscapes and automatic drawings. May and his partner, Gwen O’Neil, opened the Lee O’Neil Gallery in Savannah, GA in 2015. The two not only wanted to exhibit their own work but show the work of their peers. In October 2016, May and O’Neil relocated to Los Angeles where they continue to exhibit emerging, mid-career and well-established artists in their gallery, now called Grey Projects LA. Together they have completed numerous projects and installations, including an installation for SCAD in Miami for Art Basel 2016. CV 2017 Tommy May and Rose Abramhamson, The Field Gallery, West Tisbury, MA 2017 State of the Art, Elizabeth Dow Interiors, East Hampton, NY 2017 Out of Line, Grey Projects LA, Los Angeles, CA 2017 Grand Opening, Grey Projects LA, Los Angeles, CA 2016 H2O, Elizabeth Dow Interiors, East Hampton, NY 2016 Negative Behavior, Elizabeth Dow Interiors, East Hampton, NY 2016 Small Works, Gutstein Gallery, Savannah, GA 2016 The Print, Lee O’Neill Gallery, Savannah, GA 2015 Color Fields, Lee O’Neil Gallery, Savannah, GA 2015 Grand Opening, Lee O’Neil Gallery, Savannah, GA 2015 The Workshop Gallery, Vineyard Haven, MA 2015 New Works, Tommy May, Sylvester & Co., East Hampton, NY 2014 Tommy May, Revolver Studios, Savannah, GA