About Tom Wood

Tom Wood was born in Dar es Salaam, Tanganyika in 1955. In 1959 he moved to West Yorkshire, studying at Batley School of Art 1975, Leeds Polytechnic 1976, and Sheffield School of Art 1976-78. In 1979 Wood gained a Yorkshire Arts Association Award, one of many awards and prizes won. Others included Elizabeth Greenshields Foundation (Canada) Award in 1981, Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation Young Printmakers Award 1983, a second Elizabeth Greenshields Award in 1984, Ninth International Print Biennale prizewinner 1986, and Hon. Fellowship of Sheffield Polytechnic 1989.

Wood was a prolific exhibitor in group, two-man and solo shows, which included a one-man show at Lister Gallery, Bradford 1986, one-man exhibition at Dean Clough Contemporary Art Gallery, Halifax 1987, a one-man show: ‘HRH The Prince of Wales: A Portrait Commission’, at Dean Clough and Agnew 1989, and a solo exhibition at Wakefield Art Gallery 1990.

Wood’s work is both figurative and abstract. He said that recurring images were important to him, “a list of odd infatuations – St Michael, fish, branches, heads, dreaming, ladders, vessels, seeds, all with symbolic precedents.” Wood’s work is held by HRH The Prince of Wales, The National Portrait Gallery Print Collection, Leeds University, London Underground, and many provincial galleries.

Wood’s work is held by HRH The Prince of Wales, The National Portrait Gallery Print Collection, Leeds University, London Underground, and many provincial galleries.

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EDUCATION

1974-5 Batley School of Art Foundation year

1975-1978 Sheffield Polytechnic First Class Honours Degree Fine Art

1998 Leeds Metropolitan University MA Fine Art

AWARDS

1981 – Artist in Industry Fellowship/ Elizabeth Greenshields Foundations Award

1982 – Gulbenkian Foundation Printmakers Award

1983 – Artist in Industry Fellowship

1984 – Elizabeth Greenshields Second Award

1985 – Prizewinner John Player Portrait Award

1986 – Prizewinner Nineth International Print Biennale

1987 – Public Arts Commission/HRH Prince of Wales Portrait Commission

1989 – Honorary Fellowship Sheffield Hallam University

1991 – Royal Society of Arts Art into Architecture Award

1993- Skopos Professor of Fine Art Bretton Hall University College of Leeds

SELECTED COMMISSIONS

HRH The Prince of Wales

Alan Bennett

Professor Lord Winston

Arthur Haigh

Elizabeth Wrisdale

John Lyles – Lord Lieutenant of West Yorkshire

Kenneth Morgan -Principal of the University of Wales

Lady Diana Dollery

Professor Peter Brooks

Professor Sir Michael Thompson – Vice Chancellor of The University of Birmingham

Professor Sir Colin Dollery – Principal of The Royal Hammersmith Hospital

Sir Shridath (Sonny) Ramphal – Chancellor of the University of Warwick

The Earl and Countess of Harewood

Professor John West – Vice Chancellor of Bradford University

GROUP EXHIBITIONS

A selection from a long list:

1990 – The Art Machine, McClennan Gallery,Glasgow and Crown Pictorial, Yale Centre for British Art, New Haven, USA

1992 – Contemporary Prints, Marlborough Graphics, London

1993 – Chicago International Art Exposition/Art L.A., Los Angeles International Art Fair/The Portrait Now, National Portrait Gallery, London/ Family and Friends, Norwich Castle Museum

1995 – Art 95 London Contemporary Art Fair/ Europ’art, Geneva/ Lineart, Ghent/ Recent Aquisitions, Whitworth Art Gallery, Manchester

1997 – Art Miami 97/ Eigse, Carlow Arts Festival, Invited Artist, Ireland

2000 – Portraits, National Portrait Gallery, Canberra, Australia

2001 – Royal Academy Summer Show

SOLO EXHIBITIONS

1981 – Mappin Art Gallery, Sheffield/ Piece Hall Art Gallery, Halifax

1983 – Northern Arts, Newcastle

1984 – Cartwright Hall, Bradford

1989 – Agnews, London

1990 – Wakefield Art Gallery

1991 – Hart Gallery, Nottingham

1994 – Hart Gallery, London (1995, 1997, 1999)/ Leeds City Art Gallery

1997 – Dean Clough Contemporary Art Gallery,Halifax/ Huddersfield Art Gallery/ Schloss Cappenburg, Kreiss Unna

1999 – Atkinson Gallery,Street, Somerset

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