Tom Francis

After leaving school I went to study fine art at West Herts college Watford where I learned many different mediums such as printmaking, ceramics, observational drawing and painting.

I then went on to study a degree in Sculpture at Camberwell college of art in which I gained a 2.1. During my time there I had the opportunity to learn various other skills such as welding, casting and moulding and writing about artwork and concepts. I held six public exhibitions of my artwork in this time; (Space nuggets) 2015, Hearts lane, (Religious art) 2016, Hotel elephant, (Unit) 2016 Dilston grove, (Robo chien) 2016, 8D Grove lane, (Degree interim show) Copeland Gallery, (3rd year degree show) 2017, Camberwell College of Art.

The title of my dissertation was ‘What are the implications of art objects being re-contextualized within western institutions?’ and was about the looting and appropriation of art and cultural objects by Britain.

After graduating from Camberwell College of Art in 2017 (BA Hons Sculpture) my practice moved much more into oil painting. My work uses vivid imagery and colours to describe various forms of control. Poverty, War, religion, politics and technology are often my subject matter. I feel a responsibility as an artist is to act as a bell weather to society, shining a light on contemporary issues.

I deliberately leave my artworks ambiguous about their meaning. Inviting the viewer to ask themselves questions about the work. Using tools such as colour pallet, repeating colours from painting to painting to instil the feeling that there is a ‘code’ within the work, some ‘mythical land’ a ‘narrative’ or ‘stream of consciousness ’ Another is the juxtaposition of subject matter; something beautiful next to something sinister, one style of painting next to one completely different, vivid colour pallet next to one dour.

In a complex and confusing world we can sometimes feel it is impossible to understand why or how things are happening and retreat to simple answers. This I believe is another form of control and why I wish for my work to provoke questions “what is this about?” “what does this artist mean?”

This is my mission, to make the viewer question what they see.