Thomas Cameron
Thomas Cameron paints everyday scenes of city life. His aim to present the understated, fleeting moments – that which are overlooked due to their over-familiarity. Cameron has always been interested in vernacular photography, with its suggestion of untold stories and unexpected compositions. Film is another important influence in his work, particularly the way in which the everyday subject matters are elevated, such as in the social realism of British kitchen-sink dramas. Cameron is interested in filmic pictorial devices, and how these are used to create a psychological landscape and tell a story, particularly in the films of Wong Kar-Wai and Andrei Tarkovsky. In addition to film and photography, Cameron is interested in the tactile quality of oil paint, which lends itself to a shorthand expression of detail, creating an ambiguity and inviting the viewer into the painting. A narrative is suggested that is left open for the viewer to interpret.
Cameron’s paintings often depict liminal, transitional spaces or non-places within cities. Anthropologist Marc Augé defines these as not relational, historical, or concerned with identity. These spaces have the effect of anonymising and grouping those who inhabit them. We become customers, commuters, workers et cetera. With a focus on everyday urban life, Cameron's paintings tend to gesture towards the on-going conveyer belt of consumerism: shop fronts, supermarket shelves, fast food outlets and delivery drivers are recurrent subjects. He is interested in depicting archetypes of the city, and subjects are often signifiers for how we live today.
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B. 1992, Helensburgh, Scotland. Lives and works in London, UK
Education
2022 MFA, City and Guilds of London Art School, London
2014 BA (Hons) Fine Art, Duncan of Jordanstone College of Art and Design
2013 Erasmus, Academy of Fine Arts, Karlsruhe, Germany
Solo Exhibitions
2024 What Happens When Nothing Happens, Taymour Grahne Projects, London
2022 City Scenes, Taymour Grahne Projects, London
2021 New Glasgow Society, Glasgow
Selected Group Exhibitions
2024 The Future of Loneliness, Guts Gallery
2024 Contemporary Domesticity II, Taymour Grahne Projects, Cromwell Place, London
2024 Gertrude x Canopy Collections, 4 Princelet Street, London
2024 John Ruskin Prize, Seeing the Unseen, Hearing the Unspoken, London
2023 Layers of Time: Moments Interwoven, Contemporary U, Taiwan
2023 Camden Arts Centre, New Contemporaries London
2023 Grundy Art Gallery, New Contemporaries, Blackpool
2023 X Pink 101, X Museum, Beijing
2023 BBA Art Prize, Kühlhaus, Berlin
2023 RBA Rising Stars, Royal Over-Seas League, London
2023 Works on Paper 5, Blue Shop Cottage, London
2022 NOW Introducing, Studio West, London
2022 Selects: Volume 1, London Paint Club, London In Formation, Thames-Side Studios, London
2021 New Contemporaries, South London Gallery, London / Firstsite, Colchester
2019 Scottish Portrait Awards / Scottish Arts Club / Glasgow Art Club / Kirkcudbright Galleries
Selected Awards
2023 John Ruskin Prize
2023 Shortlisted for the Artists' Collecting Society Studio Prize
2023 Bloomberg New Contemporaries
2023 Morrison Foerster (London) Art Prize
2023 RBA Rising Stars
2022 Leverhulme Trust Scholarship
2021 Bloomberg New Contemporaries
2019 Dewar Art Award
2018 Elizabeth Greenshields Foundation Award (2015,2016)
2014 John Milne Purvis Prize
2014 Radiology Art Award, Ninewells Hospital Collection
2013 Stevensons Erasmus Scholarship, University of Glasgow
Collections
UK Government Collection
X Museum, Beijing
Morrison Foerster Collection, London
Grampian Hospital Art Trust, Aberdeen
University of Dundee, Tayside Medical History Museum Art Collection, UK Private Collections in the UK, USA, China, France and Germany