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Keith Crane /
Damon Thomas
HOUSTON TX
"Migrations"
Kolanowski Studio
​A mostly self-taught outsider artist, Keith Crane loves sifting through metal salvage yards and “junk” stores for those diamonds in the rough that may one day become the catalyst for a new creation. Using those found treasures—binding elements together through welds and fastenings—he has been creating otherworldly- and botanical-esque works since the 90s, and you may just stumble upon one around the Heights in the gardens and homes of friends and collectors. His creative curiosity was piqued early on by an artistic aunt who used metal as a primary medium and later inspired by the vibrant art scene in Houston and the quirky, art-centric nature of the Heights neighborhood where he’s lived since 1988. He was further inspired by the incomparable Houston artist and longtime friend, Mark “Scrapdaddy” Bradford, and his legion of fantastical, mechanical creations, as well as his collaboration on several sculptural works with Houston mosaic artist and good friend, Chris Silkwood, including their public art installations “Dazy Mae,” Art on Longpoint, Redbud Arts Center, Houston, and “Flower Power”—created from an industrial venting fan, metal salvage and glass mosaic—for True North in 2016.
Damon Thomas’s clay works are hand built using stiff slabs and hand-formed coils—intentionally leaving traces of hand building and other “imperfections” in the clay. His style is an abstracted realism that generally follows human proportion from which he freely deviates. He often combines his sculptures with found objects that carry their own stories. Thomas says “My artwork, like me, is often called quiet; I am drawn to glazes and surfaces that quieten and unify the pieces. I hope that my art is soulful and meaningful. If it is, then I have accomplished what I set out to do as an artist.” Born in the Heights (his family later moving to the East End where he grew up), Thomas was drawn back to the neighborhood in 1996. He earned a B.A. from University of Houston, an M.A. from University of Texas at Austin, and holds a Certificate of Achievement in Ceramics from The Glassell School of Art, The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston. Current and more recent exhibitions include “Kirk & David,” The Jung Center, Houston (through 10.31.26), “Off the Box,” Glassell Studio School, “Texas Dimensional: Fine Art In Three Dimensions," San Antonio Art League + Museum, "Found & Made," Archway Gallery, Houston, "Altamira, Sculpture Month Houston,” Site Gallery, The Silos at Sawyer Yards, “Ancestors," The Jung Center, and True North was proud to exhibit his “meaningful and soulful” mixed media sculpture "Home Fire" in 2019.
Vincent Cianni
With their collaborative sculpture “Migrations,” Thomas creates rotating casts of three different species of winged creatures in fired clay, with multiple “migrations” over the duration of the exhibition—a flock of bright red cardinals in spring, a parliament of owls through summer and a colony of bats in time for Halloween. Crane’s 3-D puzzle-like tree form of oxidized steel and stainless steel carriage bolts gives creature comfort to, and a 360-degree view of, these ever-changing multitudes of inhabitants.
Keith Crane /
Chris Silkwood
"Flower Power"
True North 2016
Rick Wells
Damon Thomas
"Home Fire"
True North 2019
Rick Wells
