About the work

This work was made by drawing a wide brush along the bottom edge of the paper from one side to the other, then turning it upside down and repeating (many times). So the band across the middle is where they coincide – the relationship of the size of the brush to the size of the paper. The colours are an attempt at grey, but they fall in and out of it.

Date and country of birth

1973, GB

About the artist

Born 1973 Barton on Sea, Tom Chamberlain lives and works in Bristol. Graduated from Painting at Royal College of Art, London (1999).

Chamberlain’s works denote a process of becoming, eventually congealing into possibility or illumination. His highly process-oriented technique is characterized by the methodical accumulation of marks of an almost mechanical precision. Paintings are built up of countless layers of thinly applied acrylic, while innumerable evenly spaced points of watercolor fill his drawings. What appears monochrome shimmers delicately, revealing depth and substance while evading definite form.

His work is held in public and private collections including Kupferstichkabinett, Berlin; Mona, Hobart; and Kunstsaele, Berlin.

Selected solo exhibitions include Falling Short, Laure Genillard, London (2020); Morendo, Aurel Scheibler, Berlin (2019); Open and Shut, Obra en Obra, Mexico City (2017); If Not Now, Aurel Scheibler, Berlin (2015); and Some Other Time, Scheiblermitte, Berlin (2011). Selected group exhibitions include Wow Drawing, Kunstsaele, Berlin (2020); Simply a Painting, Kunstverein, Wolfsburg (2018); Thinking Tantra, Drawing Room, London (2016–2017); Nulla Dies Sine Linea, Satellite, Berlin (2016); Domino Dancing, Plan B, Cluj (2014); System und Sinnlichkeit, Kupferstichkabinett, Berlin (2013); and Theatre of the World, MONA, Hobart (2012).