Finding Tom Armstrong

Finding Tom Armstrong

Every year the New Zealand Academy of Fine arts honours a small group of artists which it gives the distinguished status of ‘elected artist’. Over its one hundred and twenty seven years of history it has elected over one hundred artists, about fifty of which are still active.

At the end of 2011 the Academy released its honours list, naming nine artists as newly ‘elected artists’. Among them is Shannon-based artist Tom Armstrong, an artist that built a house and studio in an out of the way place, so that he could concentrate fully on his intriguing, bizarre and wonderful collages and paintings. Armstrong has been exhibiting with the Academy for a number of years now, grabbing the attention of many, including the committee members who nominated him for the honours list.

According to Academy curator Jodie Dalgleish, Tom Armstrong is a master of intrigue and disguise as he draws on over three hundred years of art history, borrowing and remaking its characters, icons and symbols. He is also a master of colour. On show in the gallery until the 29th of January 2012, are four works by the artist, including one large painting teaming with a life-as-circus cast of characters and references to a whole host of artistic, literary, popular and highly personal sources. “Tom could be the next big thing,” says Dalgleish. “His work keeps you coming back; it lasts.”

Other artists just honoured by the academy include Kapiti-Coast artist Harriet Bright, Karekare painter and legend Dean Buchanan, Akatarawa valley resident and artist Miranda Woollett and Wellington artists: Beryl Buchanan, Sue Scobie, Helen Casey, Phil Dickson, and Phil Quinn. Occasion, the exhibition to present the work of the Academy’s honoured artists alongside that of over forty others is on until the 29th of January 2012 at the NZ Academy of Fine Arts, 1 Queens Wharf, opposite Museum of Wellington City and Sea.

ends

© Scoop Media