Thomas J Price

Photo: Ollie Adegboye. Courtesy Thomas J Price

Thomas J Price’s multidisciplinary practice confronts preconceived attitudes towards representation and identity, foregrounding the intrinsic value of the individual and subverting structures of hierarchy. Celebrated for his large-scale figurative sculptures, Price draws our attention to the psychological embodiment of his fictional characters, highlighting nuanced understandings of social signifiers and predetermined value. Amalgamated from multiple sources, the works are developed through a hybrid approach of traditional sculpting and intuitive digital technology. Price balances methods of presentation, material and scale to challenge our expectations and provide cues for deeper human connection. He encompasses historic constructs with a newness that at first glance can go unnoticed, but that live in the public realm as silent totems for change.

Price’s practice extends beyond a strategy of figuration, harnessing the narrative power of performance, film, photography, animation and abstract sculpture consistently throughout his career. The poignant early performance work, ‘Licked’ (2001), features Price repeatedly licking the inside of a room, conceived as an expression of humanity, a desire to make the internal visible, of becoming a part of a place and its physical, material history. The artist’s presence continues in ‘Sonic Work (Collective Palette #1)’ (2020), an abstract bronze sculpture in which Price has cast the inside of his own ear. Although not immediately identifiable, the work seeks to capture the invisible space between the outside world and our innermost thoughts, calling into question how we translate what we experience into our perception of the world around us.

Price compels the viewer to consider how and why things are made, embedding references to ancient, classical and neoclassical sculpture alongside a sophisticated understanding of the symbolic power of materials. In ‘Head 18’ (2017), Price intentionally exposes the seamline of the plaster to reveal the process of casting, commenting on the relationship and ownership between artist and artefact. Sculptures of polished bronze and marble are luxurious and monumental, appearing to be rooted in the canon of 20th Century sculpture, yet the line of conceptual enquiry challenges our awareness of current iconography and the unmediated immortalisation of triumphant figures. In ‘Numen (Shifting Votive 1, 2, 3)’ (2016), Price combines the traditional process of lost-wax casting with aluminium, a material more commonly associated with modern engineering, to present a series of emblematic heads raised to eye-level on marble columns. The works set out to challenge traditional holders of power, to question provenance and instead bind one human experience to another in a manner that feels inclusive.

Born in 1981, Price lives and works in London. He studied at Chelsea College of Art and the Royal College of Art, London and has held solo exhibitions at 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 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.

Price was commissioned by Hackney Council to create the first permanent public sculptures to celebrate the contribution of the Windrush generation and their descendants in the UK, unveiled in June 2022. His solo presentation, ‘Witness’, in collaboration with The Studio Museum in Harlem was on view in Marcus Garvey Park from 2021 – 2022.

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Thomas J Price

Biography

Print Biography
Born
London, UK, 1981
Education

Chelsea College of Art, London, UK
Royal College of Art, London, UK

Resides
Lives and works in London, UK

Selected Solo Exhibitions

2022
Hauser & Wirth, 'Thomas J Price. The Space Between', St. Moritz, Switzerland
2021
The Studio Museum in Harlem, Marcus Garvey Park, 'The Distance Within: Witness', New York NY
Hauser & Wirth Somerset, ‘Thoughts Unseen’, Bruton, UK
2019
The Power Plant Contemporary Art Gallery, ‘Ordinary Men’, Toronto, Canada
2017
Hales Project Room, ‘Material Visions’, New York NY
Frieze Sculpture Park, ‘Thomas J Price’, London, UK
2016
National Portrait Gallery, ‘Now You See Me’, London, UK
Hales, ‘Worship’, London, UK
2015
StudioRCA, ‘Sentinels’, London, UK
Harewood House, ‘Recent Works. Thomas J Price’, Leeds, UK
2014
The Yorkshire Sculpture Park, ‘Thomas J Price’, Wakefield, UK
2013
Hales Gallery, ‘Ancient Systems’, London, UK
2012
MAC Midlands Arts Centre, ‘Sentinels’, Birmingham, UK
2011
Hales Gallery, ‘Angell Town’, London, UK
2008
Chicago Art Fair, Solo presentation, Chicago IL
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Selected Group Exhibitions

2022
Art Basel, 'Unlimited 2022', Basel, Switzerland
Chillida Leku, 'Thomas J Price. Reaching Out', 'La Obra Invitada', Hernani, Spain
2021
ARKEN Museum of Moderne Kunst, ‘Gold and Magic’, Copenhagen, Denmark
The Donum Estate, Sonoma, CA
2020
Goodman Gallery, ‘Living Just Enough’, London, UK
East London Sculpture Trail, ‘The Line’, London, UK
‘Sculpture Milwaukee’, Milwaukee WI
2019
Somerset House, ‘Get Up Stand Up Now’, London, UK 
2018
Stephen Friedman Gallery, ‘Talisman in the Age of Difference’, cur. Yinka Shonibare, London, UK
2017
Frieze Sculpture Park, cur. Clare Lilley, Regent’s Park, UK
Hales Gallery, ‘Ebony G Patterson | Thomas J Price | Zadie Xa’, London, UK
2016
Rennie Collection, ‘Winter 2015. Collected Works’, Vancouver, Canada
2015
East London Sculpture Trail, 'The Line', London, UK
2014
Frederik Meijer Gardens & Sculpture Park, ‘Highly Recommended: Emerging Sculptors’, Grand Rapids MI
2010
The British School at Rome, ‘If It’s Not True, It’s A Good Story’, Rome, Italy
The Royal Academy of Arts, ‘Summer Show’, (Invited Artist), London, UK
2009
British School at Rome, ‘Tempo Reale 09’, Rome, Italy
Fishmarket Gallery, ‘60 Miles By Road Or Rail’, Northampton, UK
2008
Hales Gallery, ‘Freedom Centre. This Show Will Change Your Life’, London, UK
Royal College of Art, Henry Moore Gallery, ‘Becks Canvas’, London, UK
2007
‘Video Apartment’, Dublin, Ireland
One One One Gallery, 'Anticipation', cur. Flora Fairbairn, Kay Saatchi and Catriona Warren, London, UK
2006
Bloomberg, ‘New Contemporaries 2006’, London, UK
Tricycle Short Film Festival, London, UK
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Commission Projects and Selected Awards

2022
Hackney Windrush Commission, 'Warm Shores', London, UK
2009 – 10
Arts Council England, ‘Helen Chadwick Fellowship’, UK
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Bibliography

Monographs

2021
Verna, Gaëtane (ed.), ‘Thomas J Price. Ordinary Men’, Toronto: The Power Plant Contemporary Art Gallery, 2021, ill. (exh. cat.)
2017
Hales Gallery (ed.), ‘Thomas J Price. Material Visions’, London: Hales Gallery, 2017, ill. (exh. cat.)
2012
MAC Midlands Arts Centre (ed.), ‘Sentinels’, Birmingham: Midlands Arts Centre, 2012, ill. (exh. cat.)
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Publications

2021
Miner, Carolyn H., 'Alternative Narratives. Thomas J Price and Italian Art', in Italianess. Il Libro, pp. 72-81, Vol. 3, Autumn, 2021, ill.
2005
Cork Film Centre (ed.), ‘Peripheral Visions’, Cork: Cork Film Centre, 2005, ill. (exh. cat.)
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Press

2022
‘An artist’s view,’ in V&A Magazine Issue 58, London, Summer 2022; Davies, Lucy, ‘Hackney Windrush Commission review: a sublime, spectacular honouring of a generation and their descendants,’ in The Telegraph, London, 22 June 2022; Gipson, Ferren, ‘On Windrush Day, Thomas J Price’s new statue honours a generation of immigrants’, in Financial Times, London, 22 June 2022; Abrama, Amah-Rose,
‘It’s not a monument, it’s a celebration’: Windrush sculpture unveiled in Hackney’, in The Guardian, London, 22 June 2022
2021
Payne, Emily, ‘My view: resculpting history’, in Circus Journal, Bath, Winter 2021; Abrama, Amah-Rose, ‘Thomas J Price reimagines the role of public sculptures at Hauser & Wirth’, in Wallpaper*, London, 4 October 2021; Morris, Kadish, ‘Thomas J Price. Thoughts Unseen’, in The Guardian, London, 11 September 2021
2020
McKnight-Abrams, Amah-Rose, ‘Thomas J. Price on what it means to be a Black British artist working today’, in Art UK, London, 13 Nov 2020; Lloyd, Kate, ‘Bow’s epically scaled celebration of Blacknessc’, 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’’, in Artnet, London, 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 Out, 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
2018
O’Kelly, Emma, ‘Yinka Shonibare steps into the curator’s seat with a sharp survey of African art’, in Wallpaper*, London, 7 June 2018
2016
Jones, Josh, ‘Thomas J Price’s Sculptural Investigations’, in Interview, London, 6 April 2016
2014
Jury, Louise, ‘Landscape art: walk The Line to see world-class sculptures’, in The Evening Standard, London, 11 July 2014; Wright, Karen, ‘My figures are about making invisible people visible...That’s my twist’, in The Independent\Radar, London, 22 February 2014; Duguid, Hannah, ‘Masculinity Stripped to the Core’, in The Independent, 27 January 2014
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Audiovisuals

2022
BBC Radio 4, ‘Taxi Drivers’, 27 January 2022
2021
Shade x Hauser & Wirth: Thomas J Price, ‘Unencumbered Voices in Curated Spaces’, 15 July 2021
2021
Talk Art, ‘Robert & Russell meet leading artist Thomas J Price’, 11 June 2021
2020
BBC Radio 4, ‘Front Row. Thomas J Price interviewed by Kirsty Lang’, 3 August 2020
2014
BBC2, ‘Museums at Night’, 20 May 2014
2010
BBC4 Documentary, ‘How to Get a Head in Sculpture’, 2010
2009
BBC3 Documentary, ‘Where is Modern Art Now’, 2009
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Public Collections

Government Art Collection, London, UK
The Wedge Collection, Canada 
Derwent, London, UK 
Murderme, UK 
Rennie Collection, Canada
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Selected images

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Museum Exhibitions

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Book Lab

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Films

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