Our Spring show, Tom Hammick: Atlantica, marks a series of firsts for the gallery. This is our first project with Tom and the first of the gallery’s virtual exhibitions to be shown in its entirety online.
As a gallery with its foundations in printmaking, we have long admired Tom’s genuine commitment and intrepid approach to graphic art. Atlantica presents several examples of Tom’s expansive woodcuts, with their richly textured surfaces patterned by the coarse oak wood grain. The scale of the woodcuts ranges from intimate to monumental, with some spanning several large sheets. The breadth of work is remarkable.
As the editions are printed, each block is painted and rolled by hand and no two prints are the same. Tom and his team print in short runs that are described as ‘edition variable’ – each sheet is printed from the same block (he favours the reduction process), which has been inked with different colours.
With great reverence for storytelling in all its forms, Tom’s works draw from deep wells of myth, literature, music and poetry. Compositions that start as modest subjects are brought to life through the influence of ancient epic tales, orchestral scores and Romantic verse. Passing figures on the shore or loved ones standing beneath tall trees are everyday scenes that take on archetypal timelessness and often become otherworldly.
Intimacy and remoteness alternately ripple through the work; an oscillation between specificity and universality; themes that feel particularly pertinent now. The sea, at times translucent and inviting, at others concealing, thick and lightless, becomes a metaphor for a voyage, those we embark on personally and collectively.
The show falls at an extraordinary time, in the midst of a global health crisis, when we are redressing how we interact with our environment and one another. Along with the challenges this inevitably brings for many of us, there is also an opportunity for ingenuity and creativity as we navigate our way through it. Spring brings with it an added sense of the potential for restorative growth and newness.