This virtual tour feature dual exhibitions showcasing the work of Tony May,
presented in the Mike & Alyce Parsons Reception Area and the Spotlight Gallery.

The exhibitions In the Artist’s Studio featuring Tony May and TONY MAY: Views of the T. House are presented at New Museum Los Gatos, from February 5 to May 9, 2021.

In the Artist’s Studio: Featuring Tony May

An artist's workplace can be mysterious, solitary inner sanctum. NUMU's In the Artist's Studio project provides a glimpse into the intimate setting for the creative process.

In the Artist’s Studio: Featuring Tony May is a view of May’s interior world, and his highly iterative creative process. Follow May on his journey of creating the site-specific installation for the San Jose Museum of Art, “Variable Book Construction (Bookmobile),” (1991-1995).

Tony May creates from inside his craftsman style home and the studio, the T. House, he has built over the antique garage on his property in downtown San Jose, CA. His spaces are layered with reclaimed material waiting to be put to good use, idiosyncratic objects, and tools that each hold their own story. For sculpture and carpentry, he employs a collection that includes a planer May inherited from his father’s farm in Wisconsin, and Japanese saws gifted from fellow artists. His built environment glows with warmth and balance.

On this journey into the artist’s studio, Tony May shares his process of creating the site-specific installation “Variable Book Construction: (Bookmobile),” (1991-1995) for the San Jose Museum of Art, where it is a part of the permanent collection. He plans the piece first on paper, making drawings of each detail like the connection mechanisms, sketching how the 3-dimensional composition will sit in relation to its surrounding architecture. May considers that the historic function of the original San Jose Museum of Art building was a library (just as the New Museum Los Gatos building was originally a library), and muses that the mobile “suggests that ghosts of books still hover around the building.”

After preliminary drawings, the artist turns to a modeling process, building a scale maquette of the installation or sculpture. Some of these ideas and early prototypes might inspire paintings of their own; a metaphase in which May documents his own process in further works of art. We see this in the acrylic on panel painting “Early Bookmobile Prototype C. 1990,” (2019). For this project, May built the fully functional and variable “Bookmobile Maquette,” recently donated to NUMU’s permanent collection by Karla Albright and Chris Burkhart of Los Gatos. Complete with miniature scale books, copper tube, red thread, and its own lighting system, this maquette is an example of May’s high craftsmanship and concept. If you are out for a walk in downtown Los Gatos, you can see it installed from Civic Center courtyard, adjacent to NUMU’s front door.

Captions:
“Early Bookmobile Prototype c. 1990,” 2019.
Photos (3) of “Bookmobile Maquette,” 1991.
Sketch of book attachment point. Courtesy of the artist.
Detail of “Variable Book Construction: Bookmobile,” 1991. Photo by David Pace.
Ceiling plan of attachment points at San Jose Museum of Art for original installation of “Variable Book Construction: Bookmobile.” Courtesy of the artist.

Special thanks to Crystal Birns for photographing the “Bookmobile Maquette” details and TONY MAY: Views of the T. House installation virtual tour in the Spotlight Gallery.

Tony May began his career as an artist in his native Wisconsin, and earned an MFA from the University of Wisconsin-Madison in 1966, and learned the craftsmanship of carpentry and other practical skills from his father on their family farm. In 1967, May moved to San Jose, CA, where he lives and taught art at San Jose State University for over 30 years. Tony May has exhibited his meticulous paintings and conceptual, whimsical structures to international acclaim. NUMU’s exhibitions will continue that legacy, inviting visitors for a timely reflection on the details of our never more familiar quotidian surroundings with patience, reverence, and a sense of humor.

TONY MAY: Views of the T. House

The old masters used art to document the substance of daily life in a world where society moved slowly. Their paint portrayed light and texture with patient and dedicated observation. Today, in this period of quarantine and isolation, we are confronted with an opportunity to consider our lives with similar slow observation. Tony May’s installation and series of paintings, Views of the T. House (1991-1992), show how a kind of slow, focused study of a subject that is close to home can reveal moments of beauty, irony, and growth. 

The subject, the T. House, is a handmade building—initially constructed over the course of ten years and still evolving—in the style of Japanese carpentry and woodworking. Each of the 18 compositions are a record of its material details and May’s process building it. May reflects snapshots of his accumulated experience with practiced introspection, balanced by moments of humor in his signature captioned frames.

The viewer sees the series of paintings installed with May’s bespoke system of poles and panels that direct the viewer’s path through the gallery. Though the series has been previously installed with his signature “T” shape orientation, this particular arrangement is unique for New Museum Los Gatos. 

TONY MAY: Views of the T. House is generously supported by the Town of Los Gatos.

NOTE FOR MOBILE USERS: Artwork title and descriptions can only be viewed on a desktop/laptop computer.

All images copyright of the individual artist. Do not use without permission.

In The Artist’s Studio featuring Tony May was made possible by the generous support of The Borgenicht Foundation and the Town of Los Gatos. The Borgenicht Foundation supports social justice, conservation and historic preservation, the arts, health, and education.

Views of the T. House is generously supported by the Town of Los Gatos.