GOMA, Saturday 17th August from 2 p.m. – 3 p.m.
Tom Climent is a painter based in Cork City. He is a graduate of the Crawford College of Art and Design where he received a B.A in 1995 and a Masters by Research in 2011. His work over the last twenty years or so has varied from paintings of figurative, urban and landscape subjects. His most recent work tends to focus on the creation of a structured space, while investigating the boundaries between abstraction and representation.
This new series of paintings is focused around spatial constructs and how they might provide a structured space in our environment. Referencing landscape, various types of structures and natural phenomena, the compositions range from the visually complex to simple basic structures. By the manipulation of the materials, scale and weight of these structures, Climent tries to obscure their basic properties and any identifiable purpose. It suggests a narrative but never actually reveals what that might be. The paintings also investigate materiality and aesthetics. The layers and the mobility of the paint and textures become a witness to the thought process of their making.
“The way I work is largely intuitive, painting for me starts a process of discovering unintended connections and relationships, of trying to search for reason and meaning in each work that emerges. The first marks and structures create the environment for a process that requires me to constantly re-evaluate what’s important so I can find out what the painting will be. I feel as if I’m in a relationship with the painting, it guides me as much as I control it.”
Previous solo shows in Ireland include Between Chance and Rhyme at The Hunt Museum, New Paintings at the The Fenton Gallery, Pure at The Temple Bar Gallery & Studios, Hansel’s House at the Kevin Kavanagh Gallery, Dancing Parade at the Triskel Arts Centre, Vessels at The Luan Gallery, Voyager at the Sternview Gallery and In its Reflection at Solomon Fine Art. His work has been selected for the annual exhibitions at the RHA and RUA. He has been selected for the Oriel Davis Open at the Oriel Davis Gallery in Wales and the ARTWORKS and HORTONS PRIZE at VISUAL in Carlow. In Spring 2016 he took part in Irish Wave, a collaborative exhibition in Shanghai and Beijing.
He has participated in group exhibitions in London with the Herrick Gallery and in New York with the J. Cacciola Gallery and The Painting Center.
He is also a recipient of the Heinrich Boll Cottage Residency, a Ballinglen Arts Foundation Fellowship, Cork City Council Individual Artists Bursary Award 2014, Working Art Grant 2014, Tony O’Malley Travel Award, Victor Treacy Award and a Department of Foreign Affairs Travel Award.
His work is in the collections of The Central Bank, The National Treasury Management Agency, University College Cork, University College Dublin, University of Limerick, Smurfit Business School, AIB Bank, The National Self-Portrait Collection of Ireland, NCB Stockbrokers, The Cork Opera House, Cork City Council, The Office of Public Works, Cork Institute of Technology, The American Embassy in Dublin, Deloitte, Investec, Allianz, Ibec and private collections in Ireland, UK, Spain, France, USA & Canada.
GOMA Waterford, 6 Lombard Street, Waterford City, X91 F2XP.
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