TOMMY THE ANIMATOR 

Tommy the Animator grew up on Manhattan’s Upper West Side. Born in 1972, he was influenced by some of the world’s most revered breakdancers and graffiti artists including the late Frosty Freeze (RSC), Charlie Rock (RCB) and George "SEN-ONE" Morillo (IBM). Tommy quickly embraced Hip Hop culture, diving in as a young breakdancer and then later as a music producer/MC. In the late 1990s Tommy ran into some legal trouble and was incarcerated. During that time Tommy’s worldview changed and, although he previously used drawing and illustration as a way to pass the time on “the Streets,” he began to focus on his artwork with a new level of concentration. For Tommy drawing was also a good form of therapy and after being released in 2002 he began to teach himself 2d/3d animation. This advanced skill set led to the release of multiple animated shorts with well known Rap figures in the music industry and gave him the name "Tommy the Animator.”

 

Over the years, Tommy has become a master of multiple art disciplines and his paintings have been exhibited internationally. In December 2018, One Art Space presented, Lyrics, a groundbreaking exhibition that showcased a series of Tommy’s abstract contemporary paintings infused with the lyrics of Hip Hop icons, Ice T, Kool Keith, Melle Mel, Large Professor and Smoothe Da Hustler. The innovative collaboration between the six artists, a true fusion of visual art and musical art, achieved widespread acclaim. 

 

Tommy’s work is currently on view at Warburton Galerie, 16 Warburton Avenue, Yonkers, NY within an exhibition curated by Urban Studio Unbound.