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‘His seductive, colour saturated works, many based on Vermeer’s
paintings, expose the myriad situations and living conditions of
his sitters, through meticulously planned, dignified,
portraits.’ Jean Wainwright |
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In 1998 Tom Hunter was awarded the John Kobal Photographic
portrait prize for ‘Woman Reading a Possession Order’, an image
of a young woman standing at a window reading an eviction notice
with a baby at her side. The photograph is part of a series of
work using the community of squatters in Hackney with whom
Hunter is familiar, and which he titled ‘Persons Unknown’. This
work directly references Vermeer’s ‘A Girl Reading at an Open
Window’, using both its composition, colour and play of light to
produce an image that, as with Vermeer’s representations of the
Dutch working class, ennobles his subjects. |
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Hunter’s concern with the political issues surrounding the right
of ‘squatters’, ‘travellers’ and all those viewed as ‘outsiders’
is reflected in his choice and treatment of his subjects. In
1998 while travelling himself around Europe, Hunter began a new
series of portraits entitled ‘Travellers’, which focused on the
domestic environment of this nomadic group. Hunter has since
based his photographs on compositions of British 19th Century
Pre-Raphaelite paintings and from 2003 has engaged more directly
with current affairs producing a series of works based on
headlines from his local newspaper, The Hackney Gazette, some of
which reference old master paintings. |
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Born in Bournemouth in 1965, Hunter studied at The London
College of Printing and The Royal College of Art, London. He has
exhibited at The National Portrait Gallery, London (1998); the
Whitechapel Open, The Tannery, London (1998) and in Neurotic
Realism (Part Two), Saatchi Gallery, London (1999), and has had
solo exhibitions at White Cube, London (2000), Manchester City
Art Gallery, Manchester (2002), Frans Hals Museum, Haarle
(2003), Yancey Richardson Gallery, New York (2003) and Domus
Artium 2002 Museum, Salamanca (2004). |
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