Thomas Hancock
Aplectic Soborra
Thomas Hancock is a Melbourne based artist from New Zealand whose art deals with the depiction of found objects set against ambiguous backgrounds. The resulting paintings are explorations in colour and form, confined to a certain ‘type’ of object. Hancock chooses subjects for their formal qualities, usually linear, wiry constructions. Through the processes of photography and painting, he sets out to imbue each work with a sense of tantalizing familiarity, a feeling by the viewer that they should know what they’re seeing but at the same time not quite be able to place it. Hancock uses this suspended state of recognition to keep the viewer looking and engaged with the work. The photographic and painting processes dislocate the subject from its original setting and imbue it with new life, not tied to its original function. Its new function is to describe the painting. Hancock holds a MFA (Painting) from the Ilam School of Fine Arts in Christchurch.
Listen to Thomas Hancock’s interview for JOY FM’s Sunday Arts Magazine.
EDUCATION
2016 MFA (Painting) w/ distinction, Ilam School of Fine Arts
2014 BFA (Painting) w/ First Class Honours
AWARDS
2017 Ethel Susan Jones Travelling Scholarship
2017 Parkin Drawing Prize Finalist
2017 National Contemporary Award Finalist
2017 NZ Painting and Printmaking Award Finalist
2017 Cleveland National Art Award Finalist
2016 Parkin Drawing Prize Finalist
2015 Ethel Rose Overton Scholarship
2014 Harry van der Lecq Scholarship
EXHIBITIONS
2019
“Anon Memento”, Off the Kerb Gallery, Melbourne, Australia, 7th -21st February
“Go Figure”, group show at Gallery Thirty Three, Wanaka NZ, 1st – 27th February 2018
“Objection”, Gallery Thirty Three, Wanaka, New Zealand, 1st February – 1st March
“Considerably Less Stressful”, w/ Gareth Brighton, Chambers Gallery, 7th – 22nd February
2017
“Parkin Prize Finalist Show”, Academy of Fine Arts, Wellington, 2nd August – 7thSeptember
“National Contemporary Award Finalist Exhibition” Waikato Museum, 28th July – 5thNovember
“Murray and Co Group Exhibition”. The Piano, Armagh Street Christchurch, 14th – 28th June
2016
“Summer Group Show” 50 Work Gallery, Lyttleton, Christchurch, 1st – 21st December
”Battersea” Group show at Chambers Gallery, 23rd August – 7th September
“Lie to Me” w/ Gareth Brighton, Janie Bruce, Olivia Chamberlain, Sam Clague, Tyne Gordon, 23rd June – 23rd August
“Simulacrum”: The group portrait and the human figure, group show at Oxford Street Art Gallery, 6th May – 26th June
“It, Going On” w/Tjalling de Vries, Sam Clague and Gareth Brighton, Log Recording Studio, 22nd – 30th April
“At First Glance”(MFA show), Ilam School of Fine Arts, 29th February – 14th March
2015
“Smallville”, group show at The Columbo, 29th November – 17th December
“FIGG-ER-AY-SHUN” w/ Sam Clague, Gareth Brighton and Stephanie Mcewin, Chambers 241, 14th – 18th July
“Single Space” w/ Rachel Ratten, Chambers 241, 21st April – 2nd May
2013
“Acquired Taste” SFA Campus Gallery, 1st 18th August
