TOM NORRIS

London based artist Tom Norris has exhibited consistently in various spaces since his graduation in 2013 from Loughborough University. He works with both two-dimensional and three-dimensional surfaces. In a technical sense, what unites all his work is the collaging, assemblage and layering of bold pigment with abstract forms, figures and symbols rendered in calligraphic and exuberant strokes.

Making vases is a integral part of Tom’s process, signifying remembrance, of summoning, visualising and solidifying memory. Optimism and discipline are foundational aspects of his work. So too are playfulness and poetics. The signs and symbols suspended on the surface of his compositions are a visual language, the arrangement forming something like a verse. Tom strikes a contrast between hard-edged forms and loose gestures, yet there is an ease of movement between them, developed in some sense by the smooth curvature of his vessels. Indeed, they are vessels, holding for Norris a functional license and not solely an artistic purpose. 

Toms forms vary in their presentation and level of abstraction. Toms ceramics are produced with technical perfection, shapely vessels providing a perfect surface to depict his painterly narratives and vistas, some are mores sculptural and abstracted, with colour, shape and form being the overriding disposition, jagged forms, shapes layered colours and textures provide unique notable qualities to his work.