Tom Christophersen

About the artist

Tom Christophersen is a Sydney based, non-binary, Queer performer and visual artist who is as petrified of beautiful things and death as much as they are transfixed by them. It is primarily the car crashing of these two themes which permeate the surrealistic, often dark portraits and films that they make.

Tom works almost exclusively on watercolour paper and creates mixed media works which comprise elements of drawing and painting to produce highly rendered, tonally realistic but slightly illustrative figurative works.

They also perform and creates video works which often are extensions or elaborations of the characters or settings seen within his portraiture.

Artwork Themes & Subject Matter

Tom Christophersen’s work usually takes the form of portraiture to discuss notions of persona, identity and self. Tom’s artistic intention has always been to make images that create the necessary disturbances in order to provoke permanent, positive change.

Fable and myth feature heavily in Tom’s work. Familiar characters and riffs on well-known figures in fairytale stories are often featured to discuss notions of self-representation and Queer identity. Juxtaposing these beloved and often historical characters with modern notions of the Queer self is a device he uses to unpack his own lived experiences.

Persona, drag and performance are themes which seem to creep into the form and composition of their portraiture. Tom is obsessed with transforming and enjoys creating characters which can inhabit the strange, liminal spaces he creates within his artworks. Depicting these bizarre figures using traditional methods of painting and drawing which are highly detailed seem to help lure unsuspecting viewers into worlds which can be unsettling and strange, albeit beautiful.

Documenting Queer makers, the Queer community and various LGBTQIA+ issues and moments within the Queer timeline is a really crucial part of Tom’s work. Representing members of their community who Tom thinks need to be spotlighted is a spiritual function of his practice.

Celebrity and ritual seem to feature repeatedly in Tom’s work. Cross pollinating his work with cultural high and ‘low’ figures means that his portraiture spans many different types of people both within the public eye and or from his own life. Exposing the cruelty, ritual and absurdity of celebrity culture using people they love. Visual art is something he enjoys experimenting with whilst creating work to live within gallery environments.

“I aim to bring focus back to portraiture that is of a level of detail it demands an intimate level of engagement from the viewer. I hope my traditional, technical approach to drawing and painting can provide a fresh, immediate offering to portraiture and indeed representation of the self. The figures and themes within my work are often autobiographical and based on real life experiences”.

Press

Tom Christophersen’s artworks have been featured in notable magazines, books, films and online sources including The Blue Rose Magazine, Beautiful Bizarre Magazine, Qama. Magazine, Annual Semi-Permanent Anthology, Space Is Cool As F*ck by Kate Howells, Stunning Flaws, Empire Times, Luscious Creeps, V Magazine, Das 500, and Sublime Rush Magazine

Upcoming Exhibitions

CV

Education

2010 Bachelor of Performance, Australian Academy of Dramatic Art (AADA), NSW,
Australia

2008 Bachelor of Visual Arts (Specialization), South Australia School of Art (SASA),
SA, Australia

Selected Solo Exhibitions

2022

Fabulous & Impossible: The Cult of Leigh Bowery, The Bowery Theatre
Gallery, Melbourne, Australia

2019

Thanatophobia, The Stockroom Gallery, Melbourne, Australia

2018

INTERFACING, Stanley Street Gallery, Sydney, Australia

Selected Group Exhibitions

2023

The Kennedy Prize, RSASA Gallery, Adelaide, Australia

Life In Colour, Sketch Co. Gallery, Sydney, Australia

Fifty Square, Brunswick Street Gallery, Melbourne, Australia

Phresh Produce, Luna Studio, Sydney, Australia

The Small Works Art Prize, Brunswick Street Gallery, Melbourne, Australia

Lethbridge 20 000 Small Scale Art Awards, Lethbridge Gallery, Brisbane,
Australia

The Burwood Art Prize, Burwood Library and Hub, Sydney, Australia

Life In Colour, Sketch Co. Gallery, Sydney, Australia

2022

Wine and Design, Dirty Jane’s, Sydney and Canberra, Australia

The 2021 Bluethumb Art Prize Winner’s Exhibition, 1 Denison, Sydney,
Australia

Antipodes, Beinart Gallery, Melbourne, Australia

2021

Dark Arts, Beinart Gallery, Melbourne, Australia

100 Bucks & Running, Erb ’n’ Flo, Adelaide, Australia

Lethbridge 20 000 Small Scale Art Awards, Lethbridge Gallery, Brisbane,
Australia

Antipodes 2021, Beinart Gallery, Melbourne, Australia

The Stanthorpe Art Prize, Stanthorpe Regional Gallery, Brisbane, Australia

See also

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DIGITAL ARTCHARCOALDARK ARTDIGITAL PAINTING & DRAWINGFIGURATIVE ARTGRAPHITENUDE ARTSURREAL ART

Aidonas

2020

Lethbridge 20 000 Small Scale Art Awards, Lethbridge Gallery, Brisbane,
Australia

The Collie Art Prize Finalists Exhibition, Collie Art Gallery, Collie, Australia

The Sketchbook Project Vol. 15, The Brooklyn Art Library, New York, United
States

2019

Gaia Reborn: A Future Utopia, URBAN NATION, Berlin, Germany

The Contemporary Art Awards, Online exhibition, Brisbane, Australia

Imagined, The Contemporary Art Awards, Online exhibition, Brisbane,
Australia

Lethbridge 20 000 Small Scale Art Awards, Lethbridge Gallery, Brisbane,
Australia

2018

The Contemporary Art Awards, Online exhibition, Brisbane, Australia

A Time For Gifts, Stanley Street Gallery, Sydney, Australia

Nobody Rolls Royce, Halifax Cafe, Adelaide, South Australia

Annual Pride Art Exhibition, Clifford Chance, Sydney, Australia

2017

Fanboy vs Artboy: Twin Peaks, ArtBoy Gallery, Melbourne, Australia

The Queer Art Prize, Clifford Chase, Sydney, Australia

The Queer Art Prize, Chapel Off Chapel, Melbourne, Australia

The Contemporary Art Awards, Online exhibition, Brisbane, Australia