Bergen Performing Arts Center Intermezzo Art Gallery Presents TRUTH OR DARE Exhibition by Kim Schmitt Thomas, 8/1

Bergen Performing Arts Center Intermezzo Art Gallery located at 30 North Van Brunt Street in Englewood, New Jersey hosts Truth or Dare, an exhibition by NJ-based artist Kim Schmitt Thomas. The art exhibit is in residence at The Intermezzo Gallery on the 2nd floor of the bergenPAC from August 1-31, 2016. The gallery is open to the general public during box office hours Mon-Fri 11AM - 4PM and Saturday 12PM to 4PM and available to patrons of scheduled performances. There is a free reception open to the public on Thursday, August 18, 2016 from 6-8PM.

Truth or Dare: Confessions and controversies are revealed in the spirited solo exhibition of mixed media paintings by Kim Schmitt Thomas, a NJ-based artist whose work is inspired by graffiti and urban art.

While stylistically influenced by graffiti and urban art, Kim Schmitt Thomas chooses subject matters that range from personal to controversial, painful to provocative, ironic to bizarre. Much of what she paints are stories taken from people's everyday lives, including her own, or statements about common, yet questionable, societal behaviors that have become generally accepted as the norm. Because the "everyday" is something that often gets overlooked or seen with indifference, Schmitt Thomas fills her paintings with commotion, perplexity, exaggeration and over-simplification in order to grab the viewer's attention and cause them to really observe, decipher, and hopefully see these everyday happenings from a new perspective.

With the use of acrylics, newspaper, magazines, joint compound, spray paint, artist crayons, pencils, etc., she overlaps and intertwine figures, text and objects, which she simplifies down to what is only necessary and relevant to the story, while omitting meaningless details. Her work is filled with action and chaos, while still maintaining a certain balance and control, much like life itself.

Kim Schmitt Thomas was born in 1970 in NYC and raised in Bergen County, NJ, where she currently works and resides with her husband and 3 year old twins. After attending the University of Bridgeport in the late 80s where she majored in illustration, Kim Transferred into the Fine Arts program at Montclair State University, while she freelanced as an illustrator designing program covers and logos for small NYC theatre companies, as well as creating animated logos for the TV/film Production Company, Bert StratfoRD Productions.

For many years, Kim also worked as an interior artist/muralist with Of The Essence Designs, with whom she painted on-site works in various businesses and private homes in NY and

NJ. She also worked in clay, selling her pieces in galleries and boutiques in Ridgewood, NJ, Newport, RI, and Nyack, NY. However, in 2003, Kim decided to concentrate solely on painting, her main passion, and continues to exhibit and sell her work through local art exhibitions and commissions. She also has a background in acting and dance, which she feels has influenced the way she adds movement and drama to all of her figures.