THOMAS ASCOTT

THE MUSIC SHOW

solo exhibition

September 5th - 28th, 2025

Opening Reception: First Friday, September 5th• 5-9pm​

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Arch Enemy Arts presents THE MUSIC SHOW by Thomas Ascott. Twelve new works compose a popsurreal jubilee with many of the artist’s (un)usual suspects. Orange spotted salamanders, winged and footed rhinos, the skeleton child and the antlered bear form a ragtag band of musical misfits for a tender jaunt across the forest floor.

 

Ascott paints with all of the whimsy and none of the preachiness of a literary folk fable. His recurring anthropomorphic characters are kindred yet quirky, enchanting yet humble, private yet open and honest. They are totally stylized and yet look totally real. That’s because Ascott paints with oils like he’s painting with feathers. Soft and gentle strokes form subtle tonal shifts that make the surface texture of the work look like velvet. His precision of light and color create convincing times of day, while a seemingly endless variety of detail adds logic to his narrative and fantastical world.

 

“The Wager,” for example, looks like it takes place at dawn; the steep sun forms a spotlight through the trees. By a babbling stream, the skeleton child in her pink prairie dress plucks a blue ukelele, and even the sole beaches to hear the tune. A redbird, poking out of the skeleton child’s skull, mimics the horns of the little red devil perched on the neck of her uke. Details like these—from the perfectly weathered pots that form the drumkit in “Rhythm Section” to the self-referential stickers on the stand-up bass in “Root Note”—are everywhere in these paintings, lending an endlessly joyful specificity to the work. 

 

No painting demonstrates Ascott’s worship of light more than “Campfire Song,” a rare portrayal of his forest at night. During the deep indigo dusk, the most perfect little animated flame solos a matchbox guitar and bathes the day’s musicians with his glow. There’s a giant orange spotted salamander with an excellent example of Ascott’s signature big eyes staring back at us. His, and all of the characters’ expressions, often look like they’ve been “caught in the act”—but they’re not embarrassed. They’re just so unaccustomed to being seen. Childhood is one of life’s best kept secrets, and Ascott’s work helps us remember that freedom and sincerity again. 

 

Thomas Ascott (b. 1972) is based in South Florida, but his paintings are always set in the Smoky Mountain forest near Little Pigeon River, Tennessee from his youth. Featured in dozens of exhibitions both across the country and internationally, THE MUSIC SHOW is the artist’s sixth solo with Arch Enemy Arts, and we think it is one of his strongest, most cohesive collections to-date. The show will release with a First Friday reception on September 5th, and we are thrilled to announce that he will be joining us in Philadelphia for the opening. 

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THE MUSIC SHOW will be on view from September 5th - 28th, 2025
Sold works will begin to ship the week starting October 5th, unless other rush shipping arrangements have been made. 

Items marked with a red dot have already been sold.

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