Tom Hunter in Panel Discussion at the Whitechapel Gallery

^{_{London histories - CultureLine Panel Discussion}}

_{http://www.whitechapelgallery.org/shop/product/category_id/1/product_id/662}

_{Tuesday 14 September, 7pm}

_{Samuel Johnson once said “By seeing London , I have seen as much of life as the world can show”. A panel of well-known writers and historians will discuss the way the capital has evolved over the centuries to absorb cultures and peoples from all over the globe. How did London ’s myriad small areas acquire their distinct and fascinating characters?  With writer and broadcaster Robert Elms, writer and Evening Standard columnist Liz Hoggard, photographer Tom Hunter and writer Iain Sinclair.}

_{This event celebrates the launch of CultureLine – a partnership between 10 museums and galleries, including Whitechapel Gallery, along the newly-opened London Overground East London Line.} 

_{www.cultureline.org.uk}

Tom Hunter named in top 10 London photographer list

http://www.spoonfed.co.uk/spooners/spoonfed-arts-team-8139/top-10-london-photographers-3461/

 Tom Hunter
A Hackney-based photographer, whose work we were introduced to at the now closed Arts Gallery. Hunter produces lushly beautiful images of urban decay, uncertain narrative, loneliness and alienation – often with strong art historical references to the likes of Vermeer or Millais.



 

Noemie Goudal
We first saw Noemie's work at the Crystal Bennes-curated SALON (LONDON) presents – Secret exhibition back in June. Her large-scale theatrically staged images are powerfully alluring. Crisply composed and dramatic, they drag you in with the promise of a story, and never quite give you one, or at least not one that makes much sense.


 

Tom Hunter to be awarded Honorary Fellowship by RPS

THE ROYAL PHOTOGRAPHIC SOCIETY ANNUAL AWARDS 2010

Honorary Fellowships go to fine art photographer Sian Bonnell; gallery director and curator Keith Cavanagh; Tom Hunter, the first photographer to have a solo show at the National Gallery; documentary photographer Ken Lennox; veteran picture editor John Reardon, now much better known for his portraits of famous chefs; and pioneering colourist Stephen Shore.

http://www.rps.org/annual-awards

The Royal Photographic Society was founded in 1853, to promote the art and science of photography, a mission it continues to this day, in the UK and, through its overseas membership, worldwide. Membership of The Society is open to everyone interested in photography, amateur or professional, artist or scientist. The Royal Photographic Society is a Registered Charity, No. 1107831.
For press images and further information, contact Jo Macdonald, Awards Manager, 01225 325721, jo@rps.org

Tom Hunter shows at the Burren College of Art, Ireland.

7th Burren Annual Exhibition - Timespace

Burren College of Art in association with GREEN ON RED GALLERY Dublin
warmly welcomes you to the opening reception
Saturday 31st July 6-8pm.
Opening Times: Mon-Fri 10am-4pm
1st August - 30th September 2010

http://www.burrencollege.ie/events/index.html

Tom Hunter at The Yancey Richardson Gallery, New York

Incognito: The Hidden Self-Portrait

Summer Group Show

July 15 – August 27, 2010

Yancey Richardson Gallery
535 West 22nd St. NY, NY 10011
Tel:  646.230.9610
Fax: 646.230.6131

http://www.yanceyrichardson.com/upcoming/

Opening Reception Wednesday, July 14, 6-8pm
The Yancey Richardson Gallery is pleased to
present our summer group show, Incognito:
The Hidden Self-Portrait, featuring work by
Uta Barth, Anne Collier, Amy Elkins, Mitch
Epstein, Lee Friedlander, David Hilliard, Tom
Hunter, Bill Jacobson, Jodie Vicenta
Jacobson, Kenneth Josephson, Lisa Kereszi,
Esko Mannikko, Ray Metzker, Arno
Minkkinen, Abelardo Morell, Matthew
Pillsbury, Lynn Saville, Stephen Shore,
Rachel Perry Welty and Francesca
Woodman. The exhibition will be on view
July 15 – August 27, 2010.
The works in this exhibition explore the many ways artists incorporate themselves into
their images through shadows, reflections, body parts, an obscured face or some other
discreet or surreptitious means. Often characterized by a strong sense of narrative, but
not strictly limited to vignettes from the artist’s lives, Incognito offers a glimpse at how
contemporary photographers use experimentation and
whimsy to engage with the long tradition of self-portraiture.
The use of reflection as a visual metaphor is often writ
large. In Matthew, Kenneth Josephson’s portrait with his
infant son, for example, father and child have literally
become one. The child is protected within the shadow of
the artist, whose lens captures the essence of their union.
Similarly, Abelardo Morell’s My Camera and Me reveals the
faint silhouette of the artist, upside-down in the viewfinder
and again in a wash of light in the background. The
composition focuses on the camera itself, however, draped
in a black cloth as though posing for it’s own portrait.
At various turns, the artists in Incognito reveal themselves
in the reflections of shop windows, or in an eyeball, or
camouflaged against wallpaper; here the artists are
present, though often hidden in plain sight.
For visuals, please contact Frank Goldman: fgoldman@yanceyrichardson.com

London Fields East – the Ghetto in The Hackney Citizen

http://www.hackneycitizen.co.uk/2010/06/22/london-fields-east-the-ghetto/

David Martin
Tuesday 22 June 2010

Tom Hunter and 'The Ghetto'

Sometimes art can do more than simply please the eye and titillate our aesthetic tastes Sometimes it has a purpose, a practical function, and - as in artist Tom Hunter’s case – it can speak out for a whole community whose lifestyle choices were threatened and deemed replaceable with a frozen chicken warehouse.

‘The Ghetto’, a remarkably accurate miniature sculpture of the rows of houses on Ellingfort Road where Hunter squatted as a student has been restored and permanently put back on display in the Museum of London, where it cosily sits behind a brand-new £40,000 case.

Made from cardboard, paper, wood and photographs, Hunter only ever intended it to survive a week-long degree show, and earn him his bachelors from the London College of Printing, before it would be dumped in a skip. He never anticipated that this would be one of life’s “transformational moments”.

The story behind ‘The Ghetto’ goes like this: London Fields in the early 1990s was a hub for Hackney’s squatters, housing not just the anticipated crowd of artists and students, but also doctors, architects and lawyers, and attracting diverse range of nationalities and cultures.

On Ellingfort Road there were communal gardens, cafés, bars and cinemas. “It wasn’t an isolated little pocket, it was the centre of a very big squatting community within Hackney,” says Hunter. “The shops and pubs all wanted us there because we generated a place that was otherwise threatened to become derelict.”

However, the homes that Hunter describes as “a great place to live” – in 25 years, he has never moved further than 100 yards away – were viewed by Hackney Council as an anti-social statement, while the Hackney Gazette reported someone describing the area as “a crime-ridden, derelict ghetto, a cancer – a blot on the landscape”. 

In 1994, the squatters were threatened with eviction as the council, whose policy towards the community was one of total disregard, planned to demolish the houses to make space for a large-scale industrial zone, frozen chicken warehouse included.

“The propaganda that was put out was completely counter to the reality. It was a great community were people looked out for each other. There was very little crime,” says Hunter. This is where inspiration behind the sculpture emanated from, as Hunter set out to create a work that would exhibit to a wider audience how the squatting community really lived.

How, then, did a cardboard sculpture, still being constructed with masking tape by Hunter and model maker and friend James McKinnon the evening before being put on display, manage to speak out for Hackney’s squatters and ultimately save their homes? Hunter pays tribute to his “amazing” university tutor, Julien Rodriguez who firmly believed that a wide audience would appreciate the work and arranged people from the Museum of London, the Guardian and Time Out to attend the showcase.

“Hackney Council’s policy before [the sculpture] made the magazines was, ‘We do not speak to squatters, you are scum, we will not negotiate with you’. But after the pieces were published, suddenly there were people in the council who were willing to speak to us, so we could actually talk of a way to save and regenerate the area,” says Hunter. “It was a very poignant moment for me when I realised that the work could actually have a practical purpose in society, and that is the thing that has inspired me ever since.”

This, Hunter admits, was the fun part. What followed was ten years of hard work: getting ordered and transforming from fringe community into an organized cooperative, working through another housing association who bought the properties from the council and rebuilding and renovating many of the homes. Still today, rent from these residences goes towards repaying the money borrowed.

When walking down Ellingfort Road nowadays, Hunter admits that the spirit has changed; people have left and luxury apartments have been developed. However, Hunter often returns to relive that feeling of communal spirit with many of his friends who still live in their old houses, having transformed their squats from focal points for Cool Britannia’s party culture into family homes, something that would never have been possible had they not fought against the council’s policies.

But history often repeats itself. Today, the corner of London Lane and Mentmore Terrace has been bought by a property developer that wants to put up a 24-storey tower block that would dominate the vicinity, while locals have voiced their outrage at the proposal. “It’s interesting because now people are thinking, ‘Right, we have to fight this in order to preserve our area,’” says Hunter. “It never ends, which I suppose is the story of London.”

The Ghetto is part of the Galleries of Modern London project, which opened at the Museum of London last month.

Museum of London
150 London Wall
London EC2Y 5HN
tel: 020 7001 9844

Opening times:
Monday to Sunday: 10am-6pm
Last admission: 5.30pm
Closed: 24 to 26 December

Admission
FREE

Tom Hunter shows in the Summer Exhibition at Purdy Hicks

Purdy Hicks opens its summer show on friday the 2nd of July

http://www.purdyhicks.com/exhibitions/futureexhibitions.php
 
Address
65 Hopton Street
Bankside
London SE1 9GZ.

Telephone: +44 (0)20 7401 9229
Fax: +44 (0)20 7401 9595
E-mail: contact@purdyhicks.com

Opening Hours

Monday - Friday: 10am - 6pm
Saturday: 11am - 6pm

Tom Hunter shows at “Lust for Life & Dance of Death. Olbricht Collection” in Austia

Kunsthalle Krems, in Austria is opening it´s summer exhibition 2010

“Lust for Life & Dance of Death. Olbricht Collection”

 Opens 16 July 2010

http://factory.kunsthalle.at/ausstellungen/aktuell

The exhibition addresses a host of existential topics including religion, sexuality, love, beauty, transience and death. It presents contemporary art that challenges us to enter into a mutual dialogue, while breaking or questioning certain moral and religious taboos. The historical context spans from artefacts from 16^th, 17^th and 18^th century “Cabinets of Curiosities” to contemporary artworks from the 20^th and 21^st century. These works enter into a unique correspondence with each other that together recount a new version of the history of art and culture.

Tom Hunter shows PHOTOLITA EXHIBITION AT FIVE HUNDRED DOLLARS, Hackney

FIVE HUNDRED DOLLARS
21 Vyner Street
London E2 9DG
info@fivehundreddollars.co.uk
www.fivehundreddollars.co.uk
nearest tube: Bethnal Green
PHOTOLITA PRIVATE VIEW
Thursday 8th July 2010, 6pm-9pm
PHOTOLITA FILM SCREENING
Thursday 15th July 2010, 6pm-9pm
OPEN 9th July - 5th August, Friday - Sunday 12pm-6pm
or by appointment
and First Thursdays 6pm-10pm

PHOTOLITA EXHIBITION OPENING AT FIVE HUNDRED DOLLARS, LONDON JULY 9TH 2010
PHOTOLITA is an antidote to Photoshop, reflecting a growing rejection amongst artists of the ubiquitous
ease of a digital aesthetic. The artist’s role is to say no to the common currency and to find their
own way.
The group of artists in this show have chosen to work with analogue photographic processes, drawing
on the unpredictability of light and the deliberate pursuit of chance. Away from the screen and in the sunlight
or darkroom there is less control, and a directness that can be open-ended, creatively satisfying and
risk-taking. The artists are guided by their own restless interest in the world, and their perspective in
PHOTOLITA is the recognition of incomplete knowledge.
The work experiments with the earliest forms of photography, cyanotype and van dyke, liquid emulsion,
instant Polariod, infrared and panoramic film, pinhole and cameraless photography. At the opening of
PHOTOLITA, Michele Turriani will be delivering a live black and white dark room performance and there
will be a short documentary to accompany the show, filmed on Super 8 by Phil Hale.

Tom Hunter talks to Simon Hattenstone from The Guardian

Futurising

90mins • Headline Talk + Q&A – 5pm, Tuesday 29 June

Photographer Tom Hunter will be talking to the Guardian’s Simon Hattenstone about a career stuffed with achievements and awards. From his beginnings at LCC in the early nineties, Hunter has established an international reputation on the strength of his work documenting the east London community in which he lives. He won the prestigious John Kobal Photographic Portrait award in 1998 and went on to land the first ever photography exhibition at the National Gallery in 2006. His talk is an essential date on the calendar of anyone wanting to turn their vision into a living.

http://futurising.org/events/view/tom-hunter-headline-talk/

Tom Hunter in Krakow Photomonth May 2010

Tom Hunter will show his 'Persons Unknow', series in this years Krakow Photomonth May 2010.

Photomonth opens on the 4th of May

http://www.photomonth.com/index.php/en/page/28/facts-of-life-%E2-british-photography-1974-1997.html

Tom Hunter Photographic art work on display at the National Gallery.

Tom Hunter's photograph 'Murder, Two Men Wanted', from the series 'Living in Hell and Other Stories', is on perment display in the National Gallery London.

The Art work can be found outside the Sainsbury Wing Theatre at the National Gallery, Trafalgar Square, London.

This is the only Photographic art work on display at the National Gallery and was kindley donated by the Michael G. Wilson Photography Collection.

'The Ghetto' goes back on display at the Museum of London

The photographic 3d model of the squatted streets of Ellingfort road and London Lane in Hackney goes back on display at the new Galleries of Modern London.

Opening on the 28th of May 2010

http://www.museumoflondon.org.uk/English/

Tom Hunter is featured in the Dutch documentery, 'Views on Vermeer'

Here is the link to the 60min film by Dutch film maker Koos De Wilt, featuring 12 stories by Tom Hunter, Tracey Chievalier, Chuch Close, Alain De Botton, Philip-Lorca diCorcia and others.

All English speakers are in English with Dutch sub-titles.

http://cultuurgids.avro.nl/front/detailkunst.html?item=561d392ab277345b480cda808eba86ef

More than three hundred years ago Johannes Vermeer (1632-1675) left us a small oeuvre of less than fourty paintings. In our day and age the power of his work is more profound than ever. Why do his paintings look so contemporarty? How did he influence current culture opinion leaders and effect our common sense of beauty?

'Views on Vermeer' unravels the mysterious modernity and beauty of he work of a once almost forgotten old master. It's a cinematic search that examines and unravels Vermeer's presence in the work os today's filmmakers. photographers, artists, authors and art historians.

Flashback, Tom Hunter at the Museum of London

Flashback

13 May 2009 - spring 2010
Using objects from Museum of London's collections, photographic artist Tom Hunter has created a series of unique and surprising portraits, in celebration the opening of our new Galleries of Modern London in spring 2010.

A stunning new portrait has just been added to the commission. Tailor Ozwald Boateng was photographed in the barber shop in the Victorian Walk. He has donated a suit which will go on display in the new galleries launching next year.

Like a time lord travelling from one period to the next, Hunter has stolen moments from several eras juxtaposing modern London icons like the Vespa scooter with a Museum designer dressed in a 1770s ‘panier’ dress. The beautifully staged portraits are rich with colour yet intensely dark, reminiscent of the old masters style.

Artist Tom Hunter says, ‘In these portraits I wanted to convey the freedom to travel in time, as you would do when you walk through the Museum itself. But unlike the Museum, which sets out to make sense of history, I set out to confuse by creating surprising portraits that steal from different times and fashions’.

Museum of London
150 London Wall
London. EC2Y 5HN
Tel: 020 7814 5783
Fax: 0870 444 3853

http://www.museumoflondon.org.uk/English/EventsExhibitions/Special/FoyerDisplays.htm

www.museumoflondon.org.uk

http://www.blueprintmagazine.co.uk/index.php/everything-else/flashback-new-commission-by-award-winning-artist-tom-hunter/

http://www.guardian.co.uk/artanddesign/gallery/2009/may/14/tom-hunter-photographs-london/

Tom Hunter in The British Journal of Photography 23/12/09

http://www.bjp-online.com/public/showPage.html?page=872210

Go local!

Whether it was terrorism or financial collapse, the crises we faced this decade took on worldwide proportions. Photographers have responded with projects on globalisation but, says Paul Wombell, there's also a counter trend towards the local, which defies the logic of international homogenisation

Anchor and hope, 2009 © Tom Hunter

Thoroughly modern mothers: artists reimagine the Christmas nativity scene (9 pictures) guardian.co.uk home

http://www.guardian.co.uk/artanddesign/gallery/2009/dec/14/artists-christmas-nativity-scenes?picture=356878557

Thoroughly modern mothers: artists reimagine the Christmas nativity scene 

6 / 9

Tom Hunter
'What is a nativity scene about? When I first thought about it, I thought of a school playground, of camels and kings. But then I realised it’s actually about a young homeless family, and their struggle to find a place to bring up their children. My photograph is of Leyila, a young refugee from Somalia, and her eight-week-old baby, Kymora. I photographed Leyila and Kymora in their living room, basing the image around Caravaggio’s painting The Nativity with St Francis and St Lawrence. Caravaggio used ordinary people as models, which I find very inspiring. I used an old Tungsten light, which takes about 15 minutes just to warm up, to give the photograph that “Caravaggio light”, and to create a contrast between the cold blue light from outside, and the stark reality of Leyila’s flat. But what I wanted to show above all is the beauty of the simple connection between a mother and her child'

Photograph: Tom Hunter

Tom Hunter interview with Emilka Sobczuk in Existence magazine Poland

http://www.existencemag.pl/slowlife/

Tom Hunter print sale at the National Gallery London

Click here for more images

Portfolio Magazine 50th edition features tom hunter

http://www.portfoliocatalogue.com/50/index.php

It is a pleasure to announce the 50th issue of Portfolio, marking 21 years of the publication. To celebrate the occasion we have invited 50 of the UK’s most significant artist photographers to contribute two pages of their newest works for this special extended issue.

Anne Hardy, Prime, 2009

In reflecting back over Portfolio’s history, it is clear that photography has changed dramatically in terms of its production, distribution and consumption, and this 50th issue offers an opportunity to explore how and when these changes have evolved. A useful starting point is a key moment thirty years ago, when the groundbreaking exhibition ‘Three Perspectives on Photography: Recent British Photography’ was shown at the Hayward Gallery, London, in June 1979. This ambitious exhibition - and its catalogue - inspired a generation of photographers, and broadened the future scope of photography production and exhibition. The exhibition comprised three distinct strands that reflected the diversity of photography at the time – Paul Hill curated ‘Photographic Truth, Metaphor and Individual Expression’; Angela Kelly curated ‘Feminism and Photography’; and John Tagg curated ‘A Socialist Perspective on Photographic Practice’.

Tom Hunter, Hope & Anchor, 2009

Continuing the theme of ‘three perspectives’, we have invited three writers to contribute their personal and professional analyses: David Bate looks at the origins and structure of the 1979 exhibition, its cultural and economic context, and how photographic practices have evolved during the following three decades; Martin Barnes discusses the major survey exhibitions that followed and the important shifts in practice; and Dewi Lewis explores external influences on photography in Britain, the tension between art and commerce, and the publishing sector.

I sincerely hope that this incomplete survey of photographic art in Britain in 2009 will inspire emerging photographers and students, and that these illuminating essays will contribute towards the continuing history of photography.

Gloria Chalmers
Editor

Angels and devils in Hackney at The National Gallery. Tom Hunter at the BBC

http://www.bbc.co.uk/dna/collective/A7771160

It’s a rare thing to see cutting-edge contemporary art in The National Gallery. But that’s what makes photographer Tom Hunter’s latest exhibition, Living In Hell And Other Stories, so ideal.

This exhibition of large-scale photographs is a fascinating play on the frantic sensationalism of the media, particularly in Hunter’s local newspaper, The Hackney Gazette. He parallels the violence, murder, poverty and madness within the pages of the paper with the same themes in the paintings at The National Gallery. He draws on compositions and content from artists like Cranach and Piero di Cosimo to frame stories of strippers on the Hackney Road, people being attacked with swans, and wedding parties turning into brawls. A supposedly innocent cupid in Velasquez’s Rokeby Venus, for example, becomes, in Hunter’s world, a dirty voyeur paying a pound to watch a naked woman.

Tom Hunter recreates Titian's painting Diana and Actaeon

Presenter:

Andrew Graham-Dixon

Transmitted:

25/11/2008

Tom Hunter; 'Living in Hell and Other Stories' at the National Gallery

http://arts.guardian.co.uk/tomhunter

Tom Hunter's best shot, guardian.co.uk, Wednesday 4 November 2009

http://www.guardian.co.uk/artanddesign/2009/nov/04/photography-tom-hunter-best-shot#

University of the Arts London, Celebratory limited edition print, 'Anchor and Hope' 2009

To celebrate the UK's first retrospective exhibition of Tom Hunter's work at the Arts Gallery we have commissioned a limited edition print. This new work draws on American artist Andrew Wyeth's classic painting Christina's World. The special edition of fifty framed A4 prints will be available exclusively at the Arts Gallery priced at £360, to allow Tom’s work to be available to a wider audience.  To purchase a print please email curator Medeia Cohan at m.cohan@arts.ac.uk

Tom Hunter JOINS BEST IN BRITISH ART FOR SHELTER’S HOUSE OF CARDS EXHIBITION

Tom Hunter has joined 51 other British artists and designers to create a unique collection of art inspired by Shelter’s House of Cards campaign.

The housing charity invited Tom to design the Queen of Dimonds card for an exhibition to be held at the Haunch of Venison gallery in London this September.

The exhibition is part of the charity’s House of Cards campaign created by Leo Burnett London, which depicts a collapsing house of cards to highlight the fragility of Britain’s housing market.

Tom’s card will hang alongside others including Rachael Whiteread, Jake and Dino Chapman, Tim Walker, Marc Quinn and Vivian Westwood. Each artist was given a free brief to design the card in any way they liked, with no restrictions on size, shape or medium. The final collection will be a diverse mixture of photography, installation, street art, graphic design, painting and textiles.

To see the full deck on display, visit the exhibition at the Haunch of Venison gallery in London from Thursday 24 – Monday 28 September 2009. Members of the public can place silent bids on the artwork throughout the exhibition, with a selection of the pieces going into a live auction on the closing night.

To find out more about the exhibition and auction visit www.shelterhouseofcards.org.uk.

LIVING IN HELL CATALOGUE

Buy Tom Hunter's 'Living In Hell' Exhibition Catalogue
(from the National Gallery)

TOM HUNTER BOOKS ON AMAZON

Here