Untitled 571-21 (Map/One Ocean), Untitled 536-20 (Map), and Untitled 576 (Garland)
Created for HATAK
By Thomas Lail
 
Artist statement on the works:
"These works for HATAK are all extant pieces placed into the raw space of HATAK’s attic- a space where I have never been.
Displaced to the top floor—marooned on an island above the flood— these tarpaulins are ad-hoc banners and standards for our castaway moment.  Maps and oceans, the streaming garland stars of fading borders & nations of passport… are all encircled by rising tides and viral beachheads."

About the artist:
Thomas Lail exhibits in the United States and internationally and is represented by One Mile Gallery.  Lail performs and records with experimental duo soundBarn and the multi-member Location Ensemble. He has published numerous reviews and essays including two catalogue essays on the work of Robert Longo and publishes poetry and experimental writing through soundBarn Press. Since 1993, Thomas Lail has taught drawing and painting at Hudson Valley Community College, SUNY in Troy, NY where he is Professor of Fine Arts and a recipient of both the President's Award and the State University of New York Chancellor's Award. He is a past recipient of numerous New York State Foundation for the Arts Special Opportunity Stipend awards as well as a Fulbright-Hays award from the United States Department of State.
 
A native of Upstate New York, Lail grew up across the street from a geodesic dome- perhaps foreshadowing his current interest in Utopian dreams.  Throughout the 1990s and early 2000s Lail was involved in the Greenpoint/Williamsburg art community and served on the board for Goliath Art Space. From 1991 to 1994 he co-published 
Soup Magazine. Thomas Lail lives and works in a bricolage former-tractor barn on what was once Heald Orchards in Kinderhook, NY with artist Tara Fracalossi and their son, Coltrane.
 

Untitled 576 (Garland)
enamel on cardboard and string garland, mirror 108x12x12” 2021
Untitled 571-21 (Map/One Ocean)
enamel on tarpaulin, twine 60x60" 2021
Untitled 536-20 (Map)
deacidified newspaper on canvas tarp, twine 70x108" 2020