American Art Dealer & Gallery

From South Africa to South LA

From South Africa to South LA: Contemporary African and African American Art, 1950 -Today

6 April - 8 June 2024

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WELCOME

ABOUT AARON PAYNE FINE ART

Established in 2000, Aaron Payne Fine Art is a gallery specializing in 20th and 21st Century modern masterworks. Our areas of focus include American Modernism, African American Art, The Stieglitz Circle, New Mexico Modernism, Postwar and Contemporary Art. We also have a long history with the American Abstract Artists and both European and American Surrealism.

Some of our favorite works don’t fit into any category.

Aaron Payne has expertise in areas he has explored for almost thirty-five years, but is always compelled to work with art he loves.

What Aaron Payne Fine Art also purveys is an experience and opportunity to develop new perspectives. We offer a unique way of looking at art and the art market as well the chance to participate in and engage with both in new and meaningful ways.

We hope you will join us, here on my website, at the gallery, in my office by appointment, or out in the world looking at art at fairs, auctions and wherever we can find it.
Alma Woodsey Thomas

“Man’s highest inspirations come from nature. A world without color would seem dead. Color is life. Light is the mother of color. Light reveals to us the spirit and living soul of the world through colors.”
Miss Alma Thomas: A Life in Color from Reel Plan/Jon Gann on Vimeo.

Aaron Payne is thrilled to be a part of the 2021 groundbreaking documentary, "Miss Alma Thomas”.

“Miss Alma Thomas” is the first documentary film that explores Thomas’ incredible life through the lens of curators, art specialists, scholars, and her family, and features award-winning actress Alfre Woodard as the voice of Alma Thomas. Released in 2021 in conjunction with the major four-city museum retrospective, Everything is Beautiful, thousands had the opportunity to learn of her life, work, and continuing influence.

To date, “Miss Alma Thomas” has screened at over 40 film festivals worldwide.

To view the entire film, please click HERE
- Alma Woodsey Thomas
  Untitled, circa 1968
- Alma Woodsey Thomas
  Untitled, 1967
ABOUT AARON

My love of art comes from my parents and from my earliest memories of growing up in Los Angeles. At home I was surrounded by the artworks of Romare Bearden, David Hammons, Jacob Lawrence, John Outterbridge, Suzanne Jackson, Betye Saar and other contemporary African American artists. As a child, I went to many gallery openings, and a lot of these artists were friends of my family and guests in our home. Some of my best memories from childhood are visits to the Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA) with my mother.

"For me, art has always been a space where I can connect with my own inner life in a way that is not dictated by anyone. When you are with an artwork, there are no rules, no expectations. All we have to do is listen. I love art because is represents Courage. I love art because it is something that any person can engage with in their own way. It brings together people from every demographic, nationality and background in a way that nothing else can. Anyone and everyone can have their own relationship with art."
MY PERSPECTIVE
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