Past
Scott Vradelis, To Know Blue as Blue
Mika Obayashi, What Is Sacred
Celia Jailer, Nothing Holds
Ben Lotka, Floor Objects
Leo Brooks, Fireworks
Ben Lotka, Low Relief
Thomas Pontone, Moving Toward the Sun
Opening reception 6 December 12-5pm
5U Space is pleased to announce its seventh exhibition, Thomas Pontone, Moving Toward the Sun. Centering a multitiered cement sculpture from which water rises and falls, notions of strength and fragility find new expression in solid and liquid forms. The exhibition explores the artist's journey to the present clarity and tension by way of addiction, reflection, concussion, and endurance. The resulting scale and wholeness retain Pontone's signature undulating contours, broad planes, and crisp edges born of his attention to nature. The presentation marks the artist's first show with the gallery and first solo-show in Philadelphia.
Thomas Pontone (b. 1987) is a sculptor who lives and works in the Frankford section of North Philadelphia. He earned his BFA from Savannah College of Art and Design in 2009 before moving to Mexico City to expand his practice. Upon returning to the U.S., Pontone settled in Philadelphia where he earned an MFA in sculpture from Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts (2011). Recently, his work has been shown in Galeri Philia (NY), Superhouse (Milan), and in various galleries in Philadelphia, including High Tide.
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The idea came to me four years ago when I first got sober. I was trying to find my way back to the world. The water planes show different worlds and different ways of living in them. The water is me. I flow from place to place, from dream to reality, rising and falling through permeable thresholds. It can take years to find change. When it comes, it comes quickly and so does a new way of perceiving the world.
The marks and the forms are borrowed from nature. The rhythm, the line, the edge of a leaf, the ocean’s wave, the way a river carves a stone evokes a feeling of the sublime. From the vastness of an airy sky to the complexity of a single leaf, the forms arise from a tension that contradicts established notions of materiality. The way a leaf can appear thin and delicate while holding its place on a branch in a heavy storm surprises me. The contradiction is resilience in the face of hardship. Showing these moments is my way of saying that it’s less about big wins or big loses, but it’s the trying that matters most. The show is about a devotion to moving into the light, slowly toward the sun.
Thomas Pontone
December 2025