Thomas Ramey
Thomas is a metal artist who builds everything from large than life sculpture, to furniture, and high end architectural projects. Thomas has been working with metals for over 25 years. Starting as an apprentice for an Indy car racing machine shop in high school. Thomas started building odd sculptures with the leftover pieces of steel around the machine shop. In 1988 Thomas showed his first sculpture in a small gallery in Indianapolis. After walking away from art to become a touring musician for a decade, Thomas returned with a vengeance, as soon as he returned to art, he began turning the sketches he had been doodling with on the road into reality. In 1999 Thomas opened a sculpture studio in the historic Stutz arts and business center, in Indianapolis. Working there, he attracted the attention of local interior designers and architects that wanted him to do large scale projects. Thomas began working in the upscale neighborhoods of Indianapolis and Chicago. After working with various metals, from aluminum, brass, copper, bronze and mild steel, Thomas feels most at home with mild steel. “It’s such a malleable material that I can’t stop going to it”. In 2003, Thomas’ sculpture and furniture work with recycles materials, got the attention of a group that was doing a TV show about art and building high-end furniture out of used aircraft parts.
Thomas was hired to be a supporting cast member/ metal artist, for Discovery Channels original series, “Wingnuts” The series ran for the fall season of 2004, with 10 episodes. In Jan. of 2005, Discovery Channel called on Thomas to do another TV show, “Monster House”. In April of 2005, Thomas found himself again on television, showing the world what he does best, awesome metal work. The episode, “Monster Club” was filmed while remodeling the famous Sunset Strip nightclub, The Cat Club, owned by Stray Cats drummer, Slim Jim Phantom.
By this time Thomas was living and working full time in Los Angeles while continuing to do projects in the mid-west. Working with galleries and architects from Los Angeles to Chicago. Some of Thomas’ private architectural clients have included TV stars, Hollywood producers, Rock stars and professional athletes. Soon after the Discovery Channel work was finished, Thomas opened a studio in Los Angeles which had an art gallery space in the front of the building in Culver City.
Thomas curated art openings with area artists who were not showing in the bigger galleries in town. This Do It Yourself style of artists doing their own shows, is a direct reflection of the music era of Thomas’ life as a performer. 2010 Thomas was awarded his first major art commission for the Dehaan Sculpture park of Indianapolis Indiana. Thomas’ sculpture, “The Gathering” is a 7 piece installation. All 7 pieces stand 16 feet tall, each weighting over 2000 pounds. Fabricated from Corten steel. The project took over 8 months to complete. With a budget of $200,000.00. In 2012 Thomas moved his studio to downtown Sacramento CA. to escape the rat race of Los Angeles and focus more on his sculpture work. 2014 found Thomas again on television with the FYI Network and a show called, “Red Hot Design”. Thomas was not only a cast member, but the lead fabricator/art director and project manager for the series which ran 7 episodes airing from Aug. to Sept. of 2014. One of the main focal points of the show, was to highlight the growing art of Northern California which centered around Sacramento. Thomas has been actively showing sculpture around the United States through galleries and major art fairs from, Art Chicago, SculptMiami, Art Miami, and Art Hamptons in New York since 2001.
With a love for geometric design, Thomas feels most of his work is rooted in balanced perspectives. Meaning, “To find a natural flow that is derived from the organized chaos that is geometric form”.
Thomas’ attention to detail and perfection, is imbedded into his craft from the years as an apprentice with some of Indy Car racing’s best fabricators. The work of Thomas Ramey is that of an artist who knows no limit to his craft, and is always searching for the next idea to bring to life.
