----
welcome
to the world
of
Tom G Adriani
Please
make
yourself
at
home
All that
we
see
or
seem
is
but
a dream within a dream.
Edgar Allan Poe
Raining umbrellas 2010
©Black Apple Productions - all rights reserved by Tom G Adriani
Tom Graham-Adriani was born in London to Dutch and English parents and graduated from Central Saint Martins in 2005. He has subsequently exhibited in a number of renowned galleries including; The Northern Gallery For Contemporary Art, ' A Modern Bestiary' (2006), The Factory Berlin, 'London Contemporaries' (2007), Wiltons Music Hall, 'Book of Phobias' solo show (2008), The St Pancras Crypt Gallery, 'Tales from the Electric Forest' (2009) and Somerset House 'Exhibitionism' (2010).
His work is based on the foundation of poetry and illustration. He uses these tools to unearth and explore the tales that creep “unannounced” into his imagination. He sees the work he makes as tangible daydreams and is “fascinated by the process of using pen and ink to render thoughts visible and living a life of their own”.
Adriani explains that the characters that “pitch up” in his head seem to unravel their tales before his eyes, all he has to do is keep his pen moving; “My first memories of life were playing with a large collection of toy cars and soldiers. Each one had a name and a very different personality in accordance to it's physique. I realise now that each character reflected a different fragment of my own mind. Like most other young children during play, as a story grows, all awareness of ones body and the outer world disappears. My characters would move deep into lands and scenarios that battled between good and evil, heroism and fear, life and death. To this day, my characters and the stories I watch them in, explore the same regions of myself as those of my childhood”.
Director of the Northern Gallery for Contemporary Art, Alistair Robinson explains that the battle between good and evil in Adriani's stories are a mixture of “a child like innocence merged with a sinister sense of threat and malice. He has an ability to wrong-foot us, at first providing endearing rhymes, then switching registers between charming and chilling, sustaining our attention vividly through the journeys his characters take”.
With the idea that mythological symbolism has a reality underlying any rhetorical or fictional use, Adriani's ultimate purpose is to offer an illustration of the fears and aspirations of the early 21st century. He believes that a genuinely good story “allows both creator and viewer to dive into the deepest darkest depths of the subconscious and return to the surface with a bucket full of truth”.
Interviews avaliable at: www.artdubai.ae/journal/2009/june/tom_g_adriani.html
www.jotta.com/magazine/ones-to-watch/327/tom-g-adriani
www.ngca.co.uk/docs/Tom-G-Adriani.pdf
Direct Email - t.g.adriani_gmail.com
Electroboy
2010
Mixed Media
Sold
The Final Shot
watercolour and ink
(40 x 32cm)
£480 framed
£400 unframed
Untitled
Ink, Pastel and Gouache
on card
(115 x 120cm)
£900
The Temptation of Tony
(60 x 47cm)
£1000 framed
£880 unframed
Box Of Tricks
(70 x 55 cm)
£900 framed
The Foundling
Ink, gouache on paper
(31 x 42cm)
£460 framed
£390 unframed
The Harlequin and Serval
2009
(50 x 50 cm)
Spike is a Good Boy
mixed media
sold
Chained-Ursine-Propeller-head
(50 x 70 cm)
£410 framed
Lazy Bones
(110 x 120cm)
£900 Framed
Miners at Night
(70 x 50cm )
Pen On Paper
£500
Raining Umbrellas
(50 x 50cm )
Pencil On Paper
Puppeteer & Puppet
£450
The Burrows
(Characters for an
imaginary play)
Edition of 5
(50 x 60cm framed)
Digital Signed Prints
£430 Framed
The Serious Future
Signed digital Print
(36 x 44 cm)
£240 framed
£180 unframed
Leave it to Fate
Pen and Ink
(40 x 50cm)
£420 Framed
My Machine
(50 x 50cm)
The Crackajack
Edition of 10
(28 x 35cm)
£220 framed
£170 Unframed
The Islomart
(28 x 35 cm)
The Slumplock
The Lunarmole
The Shadowaloom
£220 Framed
£170 unframed
The Rumpleton
Kenophobia
(Fear of Throwing Anything Away)
2008
(36 x 27 cm)
Barophobia
(Fear of Gravity)
(50 x 50cm framed)
£230 Framed
Eremophobia
(Fear of Being Left Alone)
Yestaphobia
(Fear of the Past)
Hypnophobia
(Fear of Sleep)
Metathesiophobia
(Fear of Change )
Nyctophobia
(Fear of the Dark)
Dementophobia
(Fear of Insanity)
Isolophobia
Obscuraphobia
(Fear of the Lightness
of Being)
The Cat Hag
(25 x 25cm framed)
£140 Framed
Harlequin & Ass
Etching
(25 x 21cm)
£100 Unframed
Dearest Neighbor
pen ink watercolour
FUTURE:
February 2011: Sudio 75, London, 'The Draftsman, group show. www.studio75.situ.org.uk
PAST:
December 2010 - Shoreditch town hall basement gallery - 'Freaks Exhibition' , illustration, painting
June 2010 - Islington Arts Factory, London (Camden), 'Summer Salon', Painting
April 2010 – Red Gate Gallery, London (Camberwell), 'Three men in London', Illustration
February 2010 – The Old Abattoir, London (Clerkenwell), Foolish People – 'A Red Sky Threatening', Painting
January 2010 – Somerset House, London (Strand), 'Exhibitionism', Illustration as part of an 18 month show
October 2009 – Salon Muerte, Peru, 'Phantomass', Animation
October 2009 – Open Arts Cafe, London (Marble Arch), 'A Stab In the Dark', Painting/Illustration
September 2009 – Nova Arts Café, Manchester, 'She laughs', Illustration
August 2009 – Building Number 5, 'Irresistible Districts', Helsinki -Various animations
July 2009 – The St Pancras Crypt Gallery, London (Euston) – 'Tales from the Electric Forest', – Painting/Illustration
January 2009 - 118 Gallery, London (Notting Hill)– 'Leftovers group show', - Painting/Etching
July 2008 – Wilton's Music Hall, London ( Tower Hill) – 'The Book of Phobias' (solo exhibition) – 26 Illustrations
September 2006 - The Factory Gallery, Berlin – 'London Contemporaries' - Animation, ‘Pascal’
November 2006: The Cube Cinema, Bristol '5 Minutes of Fear'– Animation, ‘Pascal’
June – August 2006: Northern Gallery for Contemporary Art, 'While Darwin Sleeps' – Animation, ‘The Boy Who Chose Sleep’
August 2006: Mollwax events, Singapore – Animation, ‘The Boy Who Chose Sleep’
March 2006: Nolia’s Gallery, London (Southwark) – Illustration; ‘The Grumbleblood Goons and other tales’
December 2005: Nolias Gallery, London (Old Kent Road), 'The Fearless Child' (Solo Exhibition) narrated by Snoo Wilson
COMMISSIONS:
November 2007- February 08: The Scarman Trust - to conduct a series of workshops + interviews and to create both a
book and an exhibition exploring phobias.
February - May 2007: The National Trust - to create four animations which are on semi-permanent display at Sutton House
(the oldest house in east London). - VIDEO AT www.londonvoicesproject.org.uk/whatwedid/index.php
October 2005: Affordable Arts Fair (Recent Graduate Section), Battersea park - theatre/performance/animation 'Why the Wind Blows'.
August 2005: National Theatre + Royal Academy of Dramatic Art, animation for ‘The Shoemakers Incredible Wife’
