Event detail
Reifier
THE CYNTHIA CORBETT GALLERY
15 CLAREMONT LODGE, 15 THE DOWNS
WIMBLEDON LONDON SW20 8UA
TEL. +44 (0)2089476782 MOB.+44 (0)7939085076 info@thecynthiacorbettgallery.com
www.thecynthiacorbettgallery.com
REIFIER
TOM LEIGHTON
Presented by
The Cynthia Corbett Gallery
30th September – 21st October 2008
An off‐site exhibition at Maverik Showroom, 68‐72 Redchurch Street E2
Private View & Launch of Photomonth 2008, Thursday 2nd October 6‐9pm
Hours: 11am‐8pm
Nearest Tube: Liverpool Street/Old Street
The Cynthia Corbett Gallery is pleased to present Tom Leighton Reifier which launches
Photomonth 2008 during First Thursday in association with Time Out and the Whitechapel
Gallery. The new works are united under this title Reifier ‐ the notion of reifying: to regard
an abstraction as if it has a material or concrete existence. This indicates that Leighton’s
images appear to be of existing places but are instead imaginary utopian cityscapes. It
suggests that abstract concepts of modern society are allowed a material existence in his
work. The images are an interpretation of our reality, one that is now saturated with
advertising. Familiar cities are deconstructed and retranslated disregarding the
constraints of physical possibilities, akin to a memory. They aim to capture at once the
beauty and paranoia within mass culture, the crowd and the architecture that houses this.
Leighton works organically, photographing city views and architecture constantly, working
in cities such as London, Berlin, New York and Tokyo.
In his work Leighton is concerned with the notion of control within our environments;
who surveys the surveyors; the paradox of a society built upon confidence yet maintained
by the politics of fear and how architecture plays a part in this. He questions whether, in a
crowd, one has the power to act as an individual and what role the ‘spectacle’ plays in
uniting the masses. It is, however, the city lights, colour, and shapes of roads that inform
much of the formal elements of his work.
As in his first solo show Urbo Vido, 2007 presented by The Cynthia Corbett Gallery, Leighton has produced large‐scale glossy city
images which are reminiscent of mainstream commercial photography. Also featured in this exhibition are a series of
Daguerrotypes. Printed using an early nineteenth century technique, the daguerreotype’s highly polished silver surface reveals
images from the Centre Point series as the viewer moves past the plate. This illusionary field is indicative of his work but this
smaller scale and old fashioned method reveals a more intimate dynamic within Leighton’s oeuvre.
Tom Leighton was born in London in 1981. Following his BA in printmaking from the University of Brighton in 2004, he gained an
MA from the Royal College of Art in 2006. Throughout his practice, Leighton has worked with urban landscapes. In 2006 he won
the John Purcell Paper Prize and the Thames & Hudson Book Prize. He has exhibited in London, Paris, Tokyo and the United
States. Collections include MuCEM (French National Museum of European and Mediterranean civilizations), Tiroche Collection,
UK/Israel, The Sandor Family Collection, Chicago, The Shein Family Collection of Pennsylvania, Felix Robyns, 12 Advisors Group,
London/Brussels, Nicholas Topiol, President of Christian Lacroix, Paris, The UBS Art Collection, JCA Group, London & The
Victoria and Albert Museum, London.
This solo show is accompanied by Contacts & Correspondence Upstairs at Maverik Showroom, work by Yvonne de Rosa & Paul
Greenleaf. Photography which explores the notion of memory past and future, and the seductive nature of nostalgia, to alter a
memory of a time and place. De Rosa’s recent solo exhibition Crazy God took place in May 2008, which previewed this series of
work ahead of her December 2008 exhibition at Palazzo delle Arti Napoli (PAN) Museum of Contemporary Art in Naples. Paul
Greenleaf, Graduated from Central Saint Martins, 2007 and was featured in Fresh Faced and Wild Eyed 08 at The Photographers’
Gallery, June 2008.
Photomonth 2008 is being launched at The Cynthia Corbett Gallery exhibition of Tom Leighton Reifier on Thursday 2nd
October 6‐9pm at Maverik Showroom during First Thursdays in association with Time out and the Whitechapel Gallery.
www.photomonth.org
For further information Tom Leighton and for press enquiries please contact Celia Kinchington T. +44 (0) 208 947 6782, email
info@thecynthiacorbettgallery.com or visit www.thecynthiacorbettgallery.com
