Tom Hemming

Tom Hemming graduated from The Byam Shaw School of Art in 2006. In the same year he exhibited in �The Foundry� (a small installation titled �Lips Like Two Slugs Rolling in Salt�) and worked as a Volunteer Design Assistant for Punchdrunk Theatre's production of Faust. For the majority of 2007 Tom was travelling. He spent a short period living in New Zealand and crossed South America alone, in search of experience and inspiration. Since returning to the UK Tom has lived and worked in the West Country while painting and pursuing exhibitions in all his available time.

Tom's work is essentially an exploration of his consciousness and imagination. He believes that consciousness is insular, that we only see things as we are. We see ourselves mirrored in all our surroundings. All Tom's artwork is therefore a form of self-portraiture. Responding to this he attempts to invite the viewer into his world and into his creative process. He strives to explore his own mind, in the hope that this stream of consciousness approach may resonate and allow the audience to identify with our shared, animalistic humanity. It is often the most basic and bestial areas of consciousness that his work seeks to explore. Tom's work could also be seen as a kind of ugly psychedelia.

Tom works mainly in paint but often using a mixed media approach, allowing the act of creation to remain thoroughly visible. Towards this end he has also begun to incorporate animation and installation into his practice although he would consider all of the outcomes to be either paintings or drawings.