Tomas Harker at The Lightbox: Young Contemporary Talent

Now open at The Lightbox is a solo show from Tomas Harker, one of the winners of our 2018 Purchase Prize for Young Contemporary Talent.  The exhibition presents new paintings inspired by artists from The Ingram Collection, including Roger Hilton and John Bellany.

Talking about the exhibition, Tomas says: What struck me in these artists was how they found sources from the experience of the personal world around them, forming a biography of their lives and relationships.

While this is still true today, our presence with the world is increasingly mediated.  We have access to endless media, and from this is a flattening of time and space. You can be anywhere at once.  The amount of information received, where the lines between personal/public, high/low culture are blurred, and can be disorientating.  The experience of painting with its physical material presence provides grounding.  The artists I chose in particular have a way of  handling paint that allows you to empathise with their gestures: the painter’s hand is present.

For this exhibition I wanted to create new associations, mirroring and juxtaposing these works with my own whilst thinking about paintings’ new found relevance in times where everything is at once accessible but distant.

Tomas has exhibited across the UK, including a recent solo show at bo.lee gallery. He has been included in publications such as Aesthetica, Create and Noctis Magazine. In 2018 he was awarded The Ingram Collection Purchase Prize. Tomas is currently undertaking an MA in painting at the Royal College of Art.

Tomas Harker: Young Contemporary Talent
The Lightbox
30 November 2019 – 5 January 2020

Free Entry | Suggested Donation £3

Image: Tomas Harker, Orange Scarf, 2019