Tomma Abts

“Making a painting is this long-winded process of finding a form for something intuited.”

—Tomma Abts

“Tomma Abts is not grappling with history; rather, she is authoritatively experimenting, on her own continuum, with abiding aspects of painting: color, composition, light, line, scale, tone, and texture.”

—James Rondeau, Director, Art Institute of Chicago

”During the course of making a painting I go from abstract, meaning undefined visual ideas, to something concrete.”

—Tomma Abts

“One cannot align [Tomma Abts’s] art with a general style or attitude of belief or irony–or even, as the artist also argues, with abstraction.”

—Katy Siegel, art historian

“[Tomma Abts’s works] may be present and direct, mysterious and elusive, playful and reserved, revealing themselves incrementally over time.”

—Bob Nickas, writer and curator