24″ x 36″ Inlaid Acrylic in Bas Relief “Social Security Guard”  

Created as a temporary piece for Arts on the Avenue in Houston. Found on an esplenade between 9th and 10th Street on Heights Blvd. It is a 72″ x 60″ x 6″ work made from wood and steel. It is hand painted with exterior latex paint.

Paint by Number     Color Version

The concept of the work are a series of human scaled words to be integrated into the environment. These single word thoughts are thoughtfully placed in areas along the course of the Buffalo Bayou trail. The placement of these “Word Sculptures” incorporated a single word to create a meditative call to action during the viewer’s experience along […]

These works are in the final stages of completion. They were commissioned by the Greater East End Management District in Houston. Special Thanks to Robert Ziebell for some of the pictures

MEASURED explores the measurements imposed and created by mundane objects and their influence on individuals. These fill the social and identity voids created by perceptions. The images are 1:1 scale drawings of “tools” that measure an individual through the prism of social norms and expectations. From a wedding ring, to a vibrator, to a house, […]

50 mW lasers, mirrors, and mirrorpane Anthony Thompson Shumate’s PODS® container explores the impact of weather as a powerful cultural and aesthetic force. Shumate’s unit is equipped high-tech lasers that create an environment made of light and sound based on the experience of the regional weather.  The expansive resources of Houston are used to create […]

Read the review by Douglas Britt >> See the video and other documentation on the iPad app >> This dynamic new body of work demonstrates Thompson Shumate’s mastery of storytelling while merging new contemporary pieces with the classical concepts from DuChamp to Ruscha.  The semi-autobiographical show includes an exciting variety of multimedia experiences for its viewers.  Central […]

Swarovski crystals, Ceramic, polymer clay, graphite, and #2 yellow enamel 7″ Tall

20 x 30 Litho Print on Watercolor Paper Recount of Bethlehem from 19th Century

EXCERPT FROM PRESS RELEASE: “The name of the show, The Pump that Jack Used, is a “tongue and cheek” play on children’s picture book titles, applied to the executive political workings of the all mighty oil industry. While conducting research in preparation for the show, Anthony Thompson Shumate discovered that the same 15 people sit on […]

Neon Acrylic, Cold Cathode, Retablo Tin, and Grafite 12 x 10 inches Purchased by Lester Marks, 2006 Lawndale Art Center

Finalist Proposal for Southwest Airlines Terminal at Hobby Airport, Houston, Texas. Collaboration with Robert Ziebell, Doug Michels, and Anthony Thompson Shumate [nggallery id=14]

Printed with hand crushed terra-cota mixed with acrylic medium and Gold leafing on watercolor rag paper. George Orwell’s Animal Farm was translated into Arabic mechanically, and arranged juxaposed to the english counterpart with an illustrations.  

A pre-election video installation piece, with Obama reciting the 1 section of the Communist Manifesto by Karl Marx. In the first section, Marx outlines what the problem is with the class structure and its implied problems. It is an obivious quote to Shepard Fairley’s provactive poster. [hana-flv-player video=”http://actsstudios.com/images/Obama3.flv” width=”450″ height=”700″ description=”” player=”4″ autoload=”true” autoplay=”false” loop=”false” […]

A video short about paranoia and imagination… [KGVID]http://actsstudios.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/01/BlimpnationSmall.mov[/KGVID]

This short is based around the perception of everyday life and our routines.  The viewer is tossed into a world where one character arrives and ascends into his home carrying a bag from work, only to continue to continue to work (removing items and brushing teeth).  While the viewer, through the camera, descends to the […]

This short is based around the distracting nature of advertising, and its impacts on the globalization of media and culture. The viewer is torn between watching the attack of a car filled with terrorists by NATO troops in Kosovo and an late 80s McDonald’s commercial about the Big Mac.  In its irony, the spot was […]

Novus ordo seclorum (Latin for “New Order of the Ages”) appears on the reverse of the Great Seal of the United States, first designed in 1782 and printed on the back of the American dollar bill since 1935.  Through the duality of beauty and commentary, the installation evokes a proud and mixed nostalgia, while opening […]

24 K Gold Plated Burger King Crown Hand Sewn Satin Pillow 6 Inches Tall

Available for the iPAD, and it is awesome >> Las Pozas: Steps and Falls is an interactive virtual tour of the fantastical surrealist garden created by the iconoclastic British aristocrat and poet Edward James (1907-1984). A visionary patron and friend of the European surrealist artists, James supported projects by Salvador Dáli and sat for portraits […]

48 x 96″ Digital Print on Canvas A sampling of a total of two hundred people were questioned over a two week period. One hundred men and one hundred women from different social and economic groups were asked to participate. I asked participants to list ten words that best described their gender. They could not […]

Proletariats (Series of 10) Gilcee Prints in Cast Faux Frames

450 Food Cans, Hand Engraved Can openers, and Plywood In Houston, a non-profit art organization named Buffalo Bayou Art Park, hosts an event for artists to make work during the holiday season in the urban streets of downtown. Serveral sites open for artists to choose from. During this selection process I witnessed several homeless people […]

Aluminum and Neon with LCD Screen 40 Inches Wide I was researching media bias, and I came across a study that opened the door for this work. It was a small study of CNN’s Cuban stories from 1997-2001. It analyzed the 212 stories that were broadcasted during that time, and made aware the notion of […]

Series of Living Bibles with Digital Print Dust Covers The concept of the work was to transform a neutral, timeless object into a contemporary context. I selected a series of Living Bibles written in English and updated with American colloquialisms. I designed and illustrated a new dust cover for the eight books in the series. […]

Liz Ward Robert Ziebell Anthony Thompson Shumate Commission, University of Houston Sugarland Campus The inspiration for Brazos Trace is the Brazos River, a major geographical feature adjacent to the campus. The project’s curving panels create the visual effect of a river descending through the architectural space. The river-like panels are patterned with images relating to […]

Midwestern-Mideastern (Jihad) Silver Plated Bronze Buckles, Hand tooled belts, Video Projection: 10 Ft in diameter Buckle: 6″ in diameter Based on the Texas “Ye-haw” and its connection with the “country” sub-culture, the “Jihad” belt buckles are fashioned with a cowboy hat at the top of the J. The projection is an illustrated version of both […]

Suitor of Helen White Pine, LCD screen, DVD, and 8 screws 18” x 42” x 36” Based on both the Fat Boy Bomb and the Trojan Horse, this work explores the duality of icons and their juxtapositions when related to history. This includes a looped video of politically correct youths marching in line. It also […]

The name of the show, Stations, is a “tongue and cheek” play on the common euphemism of the fourteen stations where Christ stopped on his final sacred voyage, and the top fourteen gas service stations (not gas companies) in America.

ClubGitm’o:Houston highlighted the current political struggle between prevention from terrorism versus the deterioration of civil rights with a luxurious touch. The experience of ClubGitm’o:Houston addressed the conflict by directly presenting both truths: the methods to prevent terrorism and the need to protect civil rights and the overstepping of both camps. By participating in this event, […]

Cast Chocolate Abraham Lincoln bust. Based on the notion of icons and effigies that transcend their origins, like the legend of honest Abe and the Easter Bunny. The tactile, powerful material of chocolate invites the need to taste the work without consideration of the fragility or true “taste” of the object. It has an incredible […]