Thomas Glassford (b. Laredo, Texas, 1963) earned his BFA at the University of Texas before moving to Mexico in 1990. Glassford’s early sculptures were based on local and natural materials (dried gourds, leather, chicharrÊn), but he has increasingly turned to more industrial and urban materials. Some of these are found, like embossed vinyl or plastic tableware, while others are modified, like the anodized aluminum siding used architectonically for gates and doorways that he special orders in a range of colors and patterns, and uses to create rhythmic wall reliefs that refer to the city while partaking in a dialogue with the vocabulary of minimalist painting and modernist architecture. The show presents new free-standing sculptures using melamine plates of the type used in school cafeterias and Mexican loncherças, assembled with precision and wit to form towers that can be read as futuristic utopian models, mission architecture, or even stupas. Glassford’s work has also been shown internationally; he is represented by the Galerça OMR in Mexico City.
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