Tom Wood
Born: 1955. Nationality: British.
Tom Wood was born Dar es Salaam, Tanganyika; following the death of his father in 1959, the family returned to Yorkshire. Wood studied Fine Art at Sheffield School of Art (1975 – 78) and at Leeds Metropolitan University (MA in Fine Art 1998 – 99).
Early in his career, Wood developed a style and visual language in a series of enigmatic works, often featuring a head or a single figure within an implied landscape setting. He often introduced a house form and other objects which act as potent symbols implying a variety of possible meanings and narratives. He acknowledges a wide range of influences, some seemingly disparate: “I go from the ascetic classicism of Ben Nicholson through to the overblown rhetoric of John Martin and the
Portraiture, which seems a natural progression from this work, has become a regular aspect of Wood’s practice and he has undertaken many commissions. Prominent among these are the portraits of HRH Prince Charles, Alan Bennett and Lord Robert Winston, all of which are in the collection of the National Portrait Gallery in London.
Wood has exhibited widely in the UK as well as in New Haven, USA (Yale Centre for British Art), Ottawa, Chicago, Los Angeles, Oviedo (Spain), and Schloss Cappenberg, Germany. His work is included in over thirty public and corporate collections in the U.K.
| Sir Shridath Ramphal (portrait) |