Thomas R. Somerville

Thomas R. Somerville is a native of Rochester, NY and a graduate of The Rochester Institute of Technology. Thomas holds a Masters of Cross Disciplinary Studies in Painting and Poetry, and a second Masters in Art Education. He is probably best known for his paintings of Buddhas or his paintings of social commentary on subjects such as the AIDS epidemic or homophobia. His art work commentating on AIDS was covered in the magazine Art & Understanding, March 2002, Issue 89, “Tomorrow: Thomas Somerville, Canvasses for the Future of AIDS Art”.

A body of his work has been archived in The Frank Moore Project, traveled the country in Share Your Vision (Honorable Mention) and he has won awards for his teaching from both AIDS Rochester and The MOCHA Project (Men of Color Health Awareness). Thomas has been an Artist in Residence at ARTISANworks in Rochester since 2001 and visualAIDS in NYC since 2002. His proudest moments are listed as seeing his work hang in The Balboa Museum of Art and The Queens Museum of Art, “next to Luna Luis Ortiz and Derek Jackson, two of my idols,” and “coming around the corner in Grand Central Station with my sister and seeing one of my pieces hanging in Vanderbilt Hall, larger than life. That or when they hung one of my pieces next to a Picasso at ARTISANworks. I kept saying, ‘Picasso, Somerville, Picasso, Somerville....’ until everyone told me to shut-up.”

Exhibitions and Galleries:
• ZieherSmith Gallery, New York
• Queens Museum of Art, New York
• James Cohan Gallery, New York
• The Fine Art Store Gallery, Rochester, NY
• ImageART (2004 Best in Show), Rochester, NY
• Artists Space, NYC
• The Elizabeth Collection, Rochester, NY
• Vanderbilt Hall, Grand Central Station, NYC
• Brent Sikkema Gallery, New York
• SOMA Arts, San Francisco
• HighFalls Gallery, Rochester, NY
• Galerie LeLonge, New York
• Share Your Vision Traveling Exhibition (Honorable Mention)
• Rochester Institute of Technology, NY
• San Diego City College
• AIDS ART ALIVE, San Diego, CA
• Living Through Art, San Diego, CA
• Euphoria Coffee Shop, San Diego CA
• Balboa Museum of Modern Art, San Diego, CA
• The Palladium, San Diego, CA
• Rita Dean Gallery, San Diego, CA
• The Frank Moore Archive Project, NYC
• Scalzo Gallery, St. Petersburg, FL
• Blu Water, Rochester, NY
• Metro Pictures, New York
• The James Cohan Gallery, New York
• Sikkema Jenkins & Co, New York
• The Robert Miller Gallery, New York