Tom Arthur

SCA’s focus is on the education of practicing professional artists. The school’s philosophy and program structure is orientated around the concept of student centred learning with a flexible program enabling students to access staff and facilities appropriate to the development of their individual studio practices.

Research

A graduate of Boston Museum School of Fine Arts and Tuft’s University, Tom Arthur is principally known as a conceptual installation artist, whose works incorporate a wide range of processes, materials and contextual sites.

His work is included in many private and public collections and has been exhibited in Australia and abroad, including Project and Survey exhibitions at the Art Gallery of NSW, the National Gallery of Victoria, The Australian National Gallery, the Serpentine Gallery in London, several international biennales and in the Australian Perspecta.

His primary research interests are in the field of contemporary sculpture with a particular focus on the potential of objects and installations to become conduits for the generative workings of biography in the critical production and reception of contemporary art.

Characterised by their obsessive attention to detail, these works have been equally obsessive in their enquiries into passion and death. Conceived of as self-contained entities, each work is akin to being a chapter of an on-going master narrative. The works are known for their conceptual, technical and formal complexity and by their critical engagement with the theorised and historically charged architectural spaces of the public art museum, exhibition space and gallery.

Recent works extend these enquiries by focusing on the singular object’s capacity to prise open these personal spaces of experience. These works continue to incorporate a wide range of materials and technical processes; from traditional ceramic shell bronze casting to electronically controlled kinetic systems.

Exhibitions

I'Invitation Au Voyage-Les Artistes Peregrins, Artsenate International Sculpture Exhibition, Jardin du Luxembourg and the Orangerie du Senate, Paris, 2004

A Modelled World, McClelland Gallery and Sculpture Park, Langwarrin, Victoria, 2003

Washington’s Palms, Swelter, Installations at the Palm House, The Royal Botanic Gardens, Sydney, 1999

Phygenie’s Eye, Artists in the House – Elizabeth Bay House Contemporary Art Installation program, 1997

Death – Insights on Life, Touring exhibition in conjunction with the Rookwood Necropolis, Sydney, 1996

Tom Arthur – Apropos 3 Objets A, The Robert Lindsay Gallery, Melbourne, 1994

The Beach Exhibition, The Museum of Modern Art, Melbourne, 1994

From the Southern Cross – A View of World Art c. 1940-1988, The Australian Bicentennial Biennale, Sydney, 1988

The Entire Contents of a Gentleman’s Room, The University of Melbourne Art Gallery, 1987

Goodbye Carpet, Goodbye Small Door, The Newcastle Regional Art Gallery, Newcastle,1983

Eureka – Artists from Australia, The Serpentine Gallery and the Institute of Contemporary Art, London, 1982

The First Australian Perspecta, The Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney, 1981

European Dialogue – The 3rd Biennale of Sydney, The Art Gallery of New South Wales, 1979

Tom Arthur – Survey 10, The National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne, 1979

Project 3, The Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney, 1975

Key Publications

Tom Arthur, ‘Phygenies Eye’, Artists in the House, Elizabeth Bay House, Contemporary Art Installation Program, exhibition catalogue, 1997

Philip Kent, The Magnificent Seven Deadlies, Death-Insights on Life, Touring exhibition catalogue in association with the Rookwood Necropolis, Sydney, 1996

Jacques Delaruelle, ‘Notes Apropos Three Objects by Tom Arthur’,
Tom Arthur Apropos (3) Objet A, exhibition catalogue, The Robert Lindsay Gallery, Melbourne, 1994

Ursula Szulakowska, ‘Put your face on the burning sand ... peripheral ambience and kinetic integrity In Tom Arthur’s assemblages and installations’, The Entire Contents of a Gentleman’s Room, exhibition catalogue, The University of Melbourne, 1987

Tom Arthur and Tony Maniaty, ‘Goodbye Carpet, Goodbye Small Door’, exhibition catalogue, Newcastle Regional Art Gallery, Newcastle, 1983

Suzi Gablic, ‘A report from Australia’, Art in America, January 1981

Robert Lindsay, ‘Tom Arthur – Survey 10’, National Gallery of Victoria, exhibition catalogue and video tape for Open Channel, Melbourne, 1979

Robert Lindsay, ‘W.Thomas Arthur’, Art and Australia Vol. 14, No.2, 1976

Awards & Grants

Ford Foundation Grant
Clarissa Bartlett Travelling Scholarship, The Boston Museum of Fine Arts, Boston
Australia Council for the Arts Fellowship
Visiting Fellow School of the Boston Museum of Fine Arts, Boston

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