T O M - H A M M I C K

1963
born in Tidworth, UK
1982-85
University of Manchester, BA Hons Art History
1987-90
Camberwell College of Art, BA Hons Fine Art
1990-92
Camberwell College of Art, MA Printmaking.

Collections

Arts Council of Northern Ireland; British Museum , Prints & Drawings; Yale Center for British Art, CT, USA; De Beers, London; British Copyright Council; Deutsche Bank AG, London; Arthur Andersen PLC; British Midland; BZW Bank, London; The Conquest Hospital, Hastings; Chelsea and Westminster Hospital, London; The Royal London Hospital; Dorchester Hospital; St Mary's University, Nova Scotia; Clifford Chance, London; DLA, London; Merryl Lynch, London; Bank of Montreal, Canada; The Art Gallery of Nova Scotia, Canada;
Washington University Medical Centre, Seattle

"Like Morandi’s still lifes, Hammick’s small canvases have the negative virtue of unpretentiousness: all they seem to insist upon is that a certain person performed certain acts of looking and of making. A small private assertion - which turns out to count for quite a lot. Also like Morandi, Hammick clearly takes relish in his oils, with their creamy slippery clots and glazes - but it’s the pleasure with which someone hums a tune to himself, not that of hollering it for all the streets to hear. So these quiet, rather tender acts of concentration draw you in by commanding your moral respect ..."

Extract from Julian Bell’s review
Modern Painters, winter issue 1998

"It may sound a contradiction to say that painting is still, in some way, about the struggle between two and three dimensions and in figuration, about the relationship between figure and ground within an overall atmosphere. Tom Hammick makes a kind of place and then paints within it an internal discussion about the dominant subject. Although often picturing a landscape or seascape, each space is still an accumulative, made up, kind of place.

...The relationship between material and pattern and the outline of the person is quite contradictory, awkward even.... Imagery is arrived at, floated in
from everywhere to the canvas, which is, even before the first touch, the metaphorical place for thought and projection. This, no easy post modern point, is now even more true than ever as an accumulation of imagery is already collaged, somehow, and wedged in the mind. Hammick, troubled by what he sees as a 'reductionist' cannon in art, combines the generously experiential with a dry insecurity.

The relationship most contemporary figurative, illusory painting has to the printed paper image is very strong. Hammick is a keen printmaker. He moves backwards and forwards through a range of media and has recently worked consecutively on a series of giant woodcuts and paintings. This simple interconnection with print allows a sort of by-mistake-on-purpose attitude, the opportunity to
glimpse sideways at his own imagery. As well as cross referencing the very relation to the unique, the whole process is enhanced by an ability to be both inside and outside the making and seeing. The opportunity to pursue the hidden point is enhanced by a direct relationship between reproduction and first-hand affect."

Extract from catalogue text by Sacha Craddock
published for Tom Hammick’s exhibition Homeland
at The Eagle Gallery April 2003.

 

 

 

Circus, Glynde Gap 2007 monotype c.65 x 180cm