04.23 2025

THE DAY, TODAY, TO DATE: Moments Scrapped by Thomas Joseph

Opening event: Friday, May 2, 6-10 p.m.
844 North Broad Street

THE DAY, TODAY, TO DATE is a debut show of works by Philadelphia-based artist Thomas Joseph. Throughout the month of May, the gallery will display over 60 collages that depict the ordinary beauty of daily life in Philadelphia, in a painterly style. Constructed with a draftsman-like rigor, these “moments scrapped” are a love letter to chain convenience stores, storage warehouses, SEPTA, and Philly’s rowhomes.

The show runs from Friday, May 2, through Friday, May 30, 2025, with an opening event on Friday, May 2, from 6-10 P.M.

Thomas Joseph grew up in Levittown, PA, and attended Drexel University’s Westphal College of Media Arts and Design. He posts about his work and process on Instagram at @coldsleeve. He began working with collage in 2017 and lives in South Philadelphia with his partner and cats. He is an architectural designer by day.

Gallery hours: Tuesdays and Wednesdays, 6-8 PM, beginning May 7. Saturday, May 24, 2-5 PM. Additional hours and events posted to Instagram at @space1026.

Questions? Please contact gallery@space1026.com

Q+A with the artist, Thomas Joseph

Q: For the most part, your pieces depict Philadelphia scenes. What happens with a particular place that inspires you to make a collage?

TJ: In the day-to-day in Philadelphia, whether by walking or biking, sometimes the scene is set for you. The sun hits perfectly, the shadows cast perfectly, the building stands perfectly. With a simple snap of your phone, you have that scene set forever, in one way or another. Most of my pieces are all from parts of the city I’ve passed daily in whatever commute–to work, to a loved one’s, to an errand. Life changes all the time, and spending this time to illustrate these vignettes starts to immortalize them. Biking past the same storage facility every day, staring at the same buildings while waiting for your train to arrive–these mundane stomping grounds become very special with a little paper shredding. With the bare amount of composition in mind, anything can look handsome. Out of the hundreds of photos I may take in a week, hopefully just one of them is enough to inspire a handsome piece out of it.

Q: What’s your favorite building in Philadelphia right now?

TJ: For many years, I had a real fixation on University City staple International House. A late-70s, brutalist dormitory built in a time when utopia was still seen as a place you could design to. I wrote a few short stories, a zine, and did extensive art and photography for that relic. I found the building to be very romantic, and very threatening. I used to feign interest in moving in just to get tours of the place. International House has undergone many changes even just within the past five years, and surely soon will be unrecognizable, but I’ve documented almost every square inch of that building, which will be my mind palace even when I myself am unrecognizable.

Q: What materials do you use? How did you come to use them?

TJ: I exclusively use vintage National Geographic magazines. I originally purchased some at a thrift store while working in a conventional collage style. For many years I fixated on the atmosphere of the mid-century National Geographic imagery. I amassed a large collection as I grew into the medium. With my current “painting” style, I’ve moved away from the subjects of the images in the magazines in favor of the shades of colors and textures each one can provide. Honestly, the hardest part of the process is hunting down the correct colors from this wide selection, but I believe this search adds to the pieces themselves outside of using some sort of stock color paper. I’ve grown to be very specific on the issued years of these National Geographics. Personally, the 1960s is the sweet spot. Great paper quality, great image and color resolution, a lot of wide shots, right amount of gloss. In the 1950s and before, the paper is very feeble, color printing wasn’t as prominent and the ink dusts off very easily. From the 1970s, onward the paper becomes overly glossy, almost a plastic-like sheen, too crisp. When folks offer to buy or donate magazines to me, I make sure to let them know they need to be from the years 1960 to 1972.

Q: What other artists’ work do you like or find inspiring?

TJ: Collage-specific, artist Lola Dupre is extremely inspiring. Their technique involves printing out many copies of the same image, splitting segments into very intentional fragments, and doing real-life, Photoshop-style warping. They create very surreal compositions of stretched-out castles and boats, animals whose proportions are skewed every which way, sandwiches stacked impossibly high. I find their work so extremely playful and also technically impressive. I’ve also really enjoyed James Casebere’s miniatures and photography. Specifically, I find his black and white model work from the 80s really fascinating. The soft glows, the shadows, the small narratives informed purely from the setting. Very dreamy. Taking the time to set up an entire model just for one or two specific images–it’s so neat to me.

Q: You’re also a big music fan and musician – any music recommendations to pair with these pieces?

TJ: I think my favorite part of this entire gig–making collages–is how much time it gives me to listen to music or podcasts. A massive inspiration for these pieces, what most of these pieces have been made listening to, is the greatest band of all time, The American Analog Set. Their album, From Our Living Room To Yours, is a dreamy masterpiece, where when I look at a lot of my night-orientated work, I hear Magnificent Seventies playing in my head. Other beloved musicians I find inspiring are folks like Serengeti, Spiritualized, WU LYF, Luna, Cindy Lee, Panda Bear, Amen Dunes, Tom Waits, David Bowie, Fishmans, Prefab Sprout, The Radio Dept, to name a few! Those types of tunes, when I hear them, I just need to go do something. Those records, I cannot help but feel incredibly blessed to exist at the same time as.

Posted by on 04/23/2025 in

04.10 2025

This Saturday April 12th in our gallery—–>

DOUBLE HEADER OF FREE FUN!!
Woodley White Book Signing & Bobby Lee & The Hubba Hubbas!!

Woodley White signing his brand