Artist in various media, born in Dar es Salaam, Tanganyika. In 1959 he moved to West Yorkshire, studying at Batley School of Art 1975, Leeds Polytechnic 1976, and Sheffield School of Art 1976-78.
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In 1979 Wood gained a Yorkshire Arts Association Award, one of many awards and prizes won. Others included Elizabeth Greenshields Foundation (Canada) Award in 1981, Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation Young Printmakers Award 1983, a second Elizabeth Greenshields Award in 1984, Ninth International Print Biennale prizewinner 1986, and Hon. Fellowship of Sheffield Polytechnic 1989.
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Wood was a prolific exhibitor in group, two-man and solo shows, which included a one-man show at Lister Gallery, Bradford 1986, one-man exhibition at Dean Clough Contemporary Art Gallery, Halifax 1987, a one-man show: ‘HRH The Prince of Wales: A Portrait Commission’, at Dean Clough and Agnew 1989, and a solo exhibition at Wakefield Art Gallery 1990.
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Wood’s work is both figurative and abstract. He said that recurring images are important to him, “a list of odd infatuations – St Michael, fish, branches, heads, dreaming, ladders, vessels, seeds, all with symbolic precedents.”
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Wood’s work is held by HRH The Prince of Wales, The National Portrait Gallery Print Collection, Leeds University, London Underground, and many provincial galleries.
AWARDS
1981 – Artist in Industry Fellowship/ Elizabeth Greenshields Foundations Award
1982 – Gulbenkian Foundation Printmakers Award
1983 – Artist in Industry Fellowship
1984 – Elizabeth Greenshields Second Award
1985 – Prizewinner John Player Portrait Award
1986 – Prizewinner Nineth International Print Biennale
1987 – Public Arts Commission/HRH Prince of Wales Portrait Commission
1989 – Honorary Fellowship Sheffield Hallam University
1991 – Royal Society of Arts Art into Architecture Award
1993- Skopos Professor of Fine Art Bretton Hall University College of Leeds
SELECTED COMMISSIONS
HRH The Prince of Wales
Alan Bennett
Professor Lord Winston
Arthur Haigh
Elizabeth Wrisdale
John Lyles – Lord Lieutenant of West Yorkshire
Kenneth Morgan -Principal of the University of Wales
Lady Diana Dollery
Professor Peter Brooks
Professor Sir Michael Thompson – Vice Chancellor of The University of Birmingham
Professor Sir Colin Dollery – Principal of The Royal Hammersmith Hospital
Sir Shridath (Sonny) Ramphal – Chancellor of the University of Warwick
The Earl and Countess of Harewood
Professor John West – Vice Chancellor of Bradford University
GROUP EXHIBITIONS
A selection from a long list:
1990 – The Art Machine, McClennan Gallery,Glasgow and Crown Pictorial, Yale Centre for British Art, New Haven, USA
1992 – Contemporary Prints, Marlborough Graphics, London
1993 – Chicago International Art Exposition/Art L.A., Los Angeles International Art Fair/The Portrait Now, National Portrait Gallery, London/ Family and Friends, Norwich Castle Museum
1995 – Art 95 London Contemporary Art Fair/ Europ’art, Geneva/ Lineart, Ghent/ Recent Aquisitions, Whitworth Art Gallery, Manchester
1997 – Art Miami 97/ Eigse, Carlow Arts Festival, Invited Artist, Ireland
2000 – Portraits, National Portrait Gallery, Canberra, Australia
2001 – Royal Academy Summer Show
SOLO EXHIBITIONS
1981 – Mappin Art Gallery, Sheffield/ Piece Hall Art Gallery, Halifax
1983 – Northern Arts, Newcastle
1984 – Cartwright Hall, Bradford
1989 – Agnews, London
1990 – Wakefield Art Gallery
1991 – Hart Gallery, Nottingham
1994 – Hart Gallery, London (1995, 1997, 1999)/ Leeds City Art Gallery
1997 – Dean Clough Contemporary Art Gallery,Halifax/ Huddersfield Art Gallery/ Schloss Cappenburg, Kreiss Unna
1999 – Atkinson Gallery,Street, Somerset
Tom Wood Retrospective Huddersfield Art Gallery 2015
Tom Wood New Work Mercer Art Gallery, Harrogate 2016
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You can track Tom Wood’s latest activities by visiting his blog on http://tomwood.typepad.com/my_weblog/
