UNLV Marjorie Barrick Museum of Art
Las Vegas, Nevada
We believe everyone deserves access to art that challenges our understanding of the present and inspires us to create a future that makes space for us all.
MessageShoes
- Canvas, wood, acrylic gesso, metal staples, metal grommets, shoelaces
- 12.5 x 6 x 1.25 in
- Thomas Ray Willis
-
Available
Shoes, 2011
Canvas, wood, acrylic gesso, metal staples, metal grommets, shoelaces
Marjorie Barrick Museum of Art Collection
Gift of the artist
2017.30
Two shallow rectangular boxes lean against a wall. The one on the left is covered with cracked and dirty white paint. The one on the right is made of unpainted, off-white painter’s canvas. It resembles a shoe, with an opening for a foot and a shoelace criss-crossing through two rows of eyelets. (written by Andrea Noonoo)
Raised in Las Vegas and currently living and working in New York City, Thomas Ray Willis teases the imagined boundaries between fine art and the quotidian world by transforming traditional art materials into household items such as mallets, beds, flower pots, and—during his 2015 residency at the Cosmopolitan’s P3 Studios—boutique bags and belts. His work has appeared at deCordova Sculpture Park and Museum, MA; Dorchester Art Project, MA; Socrates Sculpture Park, NY; and various Las Vegas galleries including the Contemporary Art Center and Trifecta. UNLV BFA 2009
In 1917, Marcel Duchamp’s Urinal inaugurated the idea that everyday objects could become art. A century later, Willis picks up a canvas and tests out the transformation in reverse.
- Created: 2011
- Inventory Number: 2017.30.003