Courtesy Thomas J Price studio
Thomas J Price works across disciplines, predominantly in sculpture, but also in film and photography. Conceptually focused, Price engages with issues of power, representation, interpretation and perception both in society and in art.
Price’s large-scale sculptures depict imagined subjects, whose features are an amalgamation of sources. Observed individuals and stereotypes represented in the media are mixed with references to ancient, classical and neoclassical sculptures. These works serve as psychological portraits of the viewer by revealing socially learned attitudes and understandings as they project identities on to the depicted characters. Using methods of presentation, material, scale, and detail Price aims to challenge viewers’ expectations and assumptions.
Price’s practice extends beyond a strategy of figuration. In one example, sculptures of polished bronze are luxurious and monumental, first appearing to be abstract and rooted in the history of 20th century sculpture. They set out to challenge artistic institutions and the traditional holders of power, to create an alternative narrative and to highlight the structures in place that reinforce cultural values.
‘I want [this] sculpture to be an opportunity for people to connect emotionally with an image of someone they might not have noticed before,’ Price says. ‘ …Often the most powerful person in the room is the person in the background, or fiddling, or not sitting bolt upright smiling.’
Born in London in 1981, Price studied at Chelsea College of Art and the Royal College of Art in London. Price has held solo exhibitions at prestigious institutions including The Power Plant, Toronto, Canada; The National Portrait Gallery, London, UK; Royal Academy of Arts, London, UK; MAC, Birmingham, UK; Royal College of Art, London, UK; Harewood House, Leeds, UK; and the Yorkshire Sculpture Park, West Bretton, UK.
Price’s work is held in prestigious collections such as The Donum Estate, Sonoma, CA; Government Art Collection, London, UK; The Wedge Collection (Canada), Derwent London (UK), Murderme (UK) and the Rennie Collection (Canada).
Price was the recipient of the Arts Council England Helen Chadwick Fellowship in 2009, and has been commissioned to create a public artwork in Hackney in 2022, commemorating the Windrush generation.
Thomas J Price
Biography
Print BiographyChelsea College of Art, London, UK
Royal College of Art, London, UK
Selected Solo Exhibitions
The Studio Museum in Harlem, Marcus Garvey Park, ‘Thomas J. Price. Witness‘, New York NY
Frieze Sculpture Park, ‘Thomas J Price’, London, UK
Hales, ‘Worship’, London, UK
Harewood House, ‘Recent Works. Thomas J Price’, Leeds, UK
Selected Group Exhibitions
The Donum Estate, Sonoma, CA
East London Sculpture Trail, ‘The Line’, London, UK
‘Sculpture Milwaukee’, Milwaukee WI
Hales Gallery, ‘Ebony G Patterson | Thomas J Price | Zadie Xa’, London, UK
The Royal Academy of Arts, ‘Summer Show’, (Invited Artist), London, UK
Fishmarket Gallery, ‘60 Miles By Road Or Rail’, Northampton, UK
Royal College of Art, Henry Moore Gallery, ‘Becks Canvas’, London, UK
One One One Gallery, 'Anticipation', cur. Flora Fairbairn, Kay Saatchi and Catriona Warren, London, UK
Tricycle Short Film Festival, London, UK
Commission Projects and Selected Awards
Bibliography
Monographs
Publications
Press
Lloyd, Kate, ‘Bow's epically scaled celebration of Blackness’, in Time Out, London, 13 October 2020
Prempeh, Charlene, ‘The Kudos Project: the artist helping black women loom large in public art’, in Financial Times, London, 25 August 2020
McGreevy, Nora, ‘Amid Reckoning on Public Art, Statue of Black ‘Everywoman’ Unveiled in London’, in Smithsonian Magazine, Washington, DC, 7 August 2020
Shine, Kim, ‘Sculpture Milwaukee brings back free outdoor public art for fourth year’, in CBS 58, Milwaukee, 5 August 2020
Brown, Mark, ‘Sculptor's black ‘everywoman’ erected on public art walk in London’, in The Guardian, London, 5 August 2020
Rea, Naomi, ‘As the UK Seeks to Diversify Its Public Sculptures, London Unveils a New Monument to the Black ‘Everywoman’’, on Artnet, 5 August 2020
Heaf, Jonathan, ‘Windrush memorial artist: ‘Marc Quinn’s Jen Reid statue colonised the Colston plinth and hijacked the BLM movement. It’s a con’’, in GQ, New York, 20 July 2020
Price, Thomas J., ‘The problem with Marc Quinn's Black Lives Matter sculpture’, in The Art Newspaper, London, 16 July, 2020
Price, Thomas J., ‘Rethink how we celebrate power’, in Time, London, 6 July 2020
Dinsdale, Emily, ‘Hackney Council commissions two public artworks to commemorate Windrush’, in Dazed, London, 23 June 2020
Lanigan, Roisin, ‘Artists are creating statues in commemoration of the Windrush generation’, in i-D, London, 22 June 2020
Wright, Karen, ‘My figures are about making invisible people visible...That's my twist’, in Independent\Radar, London, 22 February 2014
Duguid, Hannah, ‘Masculinity Stripped to the Core’, in Independent, London, 27 January 2014
Audiovisuals
Public Collections
The Wedge Collection, Canada
Derwent, London, UK
Murderme, UK
Rennie Collection, Canada
