Thomas Heath
“African-American culture is rich in color, texture, history and value. I use my paintbrush to represent and document all that I can recall. It’s my way to resist black lives being forgotten, rewritten or marginalized. I paint ancestors who stayed behind, those lost in the passage, and those who survived.””
artist bio
Thomas Heath, born in Newport News, Virginia, left for New York City and lived an improvised life until he discovered painting through an acquaintance–after he had turned forty! He was bold about showing opportunities and began his own gallery in Harlem, still active today.
Heath does work that is figurative, but abstract effects occur, too. The term “outsider artist” hardly makes sense anymore, but that might be one way to describe Heath’s powerfully free-hand art. Heath’s style remains open, enabling him to communicate well–and with emphasis. Heath makes it clear that black life and culture are intrinsic to his paintings: “My paintings are our story.”
In 2021 Heath’s collaboration with the architectural firm, Brandt-Haferd resulted in a NYCxDESIGN design award for Outdoor Dining presented by Interior Design Magazine. In 2020, Heath was one of eight artists commissioned to Harlem’s Black Lives Matter mural. The mural is featured in a documentary short, American Street Mural in Harlem, and was licensed by the Public Theater for their 2021 Shakespeare in the Park production, Merry Wives. TV credits include Bravo’s, The Last OG with Tracy Morgan. Heath’s work is in the permanent collection of the Downing Gross Cultural Center in Newport News VA and published in African American Art, The Long Struggle by Crystal Britton.
