der Lärm was formed in 1990, a renegade band of Detroit-based graphic designers and painters, artists burning with passionate angst, and fed up with the lackluster, antiquated and obesely cheese-filled remnants of the “golden age†of advertising which maintained a sweaty vice-grip on the creative output of the “commercial†or “applied†arts, as well as the lethargic, top-heavy monolith of “fine art†criticism which floated high above mortal perception in the heavenly ether of hyper-intellectualized elitism. der Lärm fervently modeled itself after the modernist movements of the early Twentieth Century, a time when the greatest creative minds of the era banded together and splintered apart again and again in an attempt to break ties with the perceived nostalgic aesthetics of the past and constantly re-define the very nature of art. Groups like Die Brüke, Der Blaue Reiter, the Futurists and the Vorticists were the first punk rockers, owning and manipulating the long-sacred tenets of truth and beauty for themselves, damn the past. Tom Thewes now stands as the last of these brave idiots, the last der Lärm boy.
Taking his cues from an absurd admiration of those first romantic masters of artistic dissention, Thewes’ style has been dubbed Retro-Futurism. In an attempt to again band with other like-minded aesthetes, he bought and re-opened the doors of the now world-renowned ©POP Gallery. In fact one of the very first galleries to showcase what has become known as Lowbrow, he finds the term truly a misnomer and prefers to call it simply by its best and most recognized herald/defender - ©POP.
Tom Thewes lurks about the environs of the dead city, the bleak urban landscape known to many as Detroit. He is often seen rummaging through piles of debris with Jaspar, his faithful sidekick/dependant offspring, and/or one or more of Jaspar’s obedient sibling minions, Mika, Josh or GoGo.
Pray for these stridently courageous spirits, these weary souls, as they may not live to see the dawn.
Generate your own contact table!