'Banana Split' by Tom Leamon

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A MOMENT TO REFLECT…AND A BIT OF A CELEBRATION

Expressive portraits emerging from layers of loose brushstrokes. Energetic canvases crowded with image and text. Colourful abstractions bursting with playful joy. Each piece is an interrogation, a question, a look within. Ahead of his upcoming show here in Galeria Augustine, we sat down for a chat with artist Tom Leamon. Leamon has been a practising artist for twenty five years and has lived, worked and exhibited all over the world, from London to New York, Sao Paulo to Miami.  He currently lives and paints in the Algarve, and this latest show is a look back at the shifts and changes in his practice over the last twelve years. The show will take its audience on an immersive  journey, through the life and career of an artist who is forever reinventing himself.

“I think I’m probably taking a moment to reflect. 

This will essentially be a show of works from 2011 up to now so that’s twelve years of change and movement. It is a delve into how my interests have changed, how my style has changed and kind of coming to terms with that.

For me it will be quite weird and interesting to see how this will be looked at from an outside point of view, because you’re going to have people looking at what they think is multiple artists, and it’s just me - just my work.

I’m not at the stage of life for having a retrospective of work, but it is essentially… a journey of sorts.

A lot of the work will be dressed theatrically so you know you’re part of  an experience, it’s not just viewing an artwork with a gallery light above it”.

Leamon moved to Portugal 8 years ago, and while the energy is certainly different between London and the Algarve, he enjoys the peace and solitude of his rural studios, as well as the vibrancy of cities like Faro and Lisbon. The change of environment has had a noticeable impact on his practice.

“I think my work is constantly changing. 

I moved to the algarve in 2014, and… the works for sure have gotten brighter. There was a period of time that was full of joy when I first came, and then that turned quite melancholy for a while.

I’ve spent a lot more time in solitude in Portugal, so the work became a bit more introspective and contemplative. At the same time I would say that  the work overall became a bit more playful, a bit more fun. 

I have art studios in a rural landscape which is partly for solitude,  calmness, peace. I obviously miss people but now I have a studio also in the city of Faro, so i interject my time between the two. 

Although the south is not [like] Lisbon or London or  New York or Berlin and some place I've lived in… it does  feel like Portugal as a whole is bubbling with a kind of excitement, newness, and creativity.

I’ve spent lots of time  in Lisbon over the last 20 years. I did a residency in 2019 at Casa Independente, and I was living in Lisbon for 6 months.  I love it very much and I think that  it’s a real hub for new  wonderful  creativity and I feel like it's  the place to be in terms of making and showing work right now. I’m a bit disillusioned with other parts of the world and Lisbon to a point feels like home”.

When discussing possible influences and inspirations in his work, Leamon said that above anything else, it is an individual's ability to reinvent themselves again and again which moves him.

“There’s always obviously references in my work to artists from the past, i wouldn't say that they are particularly inspirations in what they were making, more in their mark-making techniques.

Anyone who can work for years and years and years and re-invent themselves is always something that is profound for me. 

It’s easy enough to make artwork, but to stay present and to be in the mix of it all [is not easy]. So you know, David Bowie, Leonard Cohen, characters who have had their finger on the pulse but also maybe ahead of the trend a little bit… I think that is always amazing”. 

I’ve always been a bit of an outsider in making artwork and showing it, i’ve shown in lots of different place but i nearly always have curated and set up the shows myself and I’m not necessarily particularly trend based or working with what’s happening at the time, so the inspiration for me tend to come from the people who have been around with longevity”.

Tom has been involved in many collective projects over the last ten years, and emphasises the importance of surrounding oneself with creative people that you can work with and be inspired by. In London, in 2013, Leamon was a founding member of both Studio 180 (a Georgian terrace converted to house five studios and host a multitude of events), and Gallery 223 (a unique space which went against the grain of standard white-cube gallery practices). In Portugal he set up and runs The Beekeepers arts association, as well as his most recent project Estúdio Yucca. Both spaces are guided by a vision of developing creative practice in nature.

“I massively  see the value of being part of a thing, a movement that’s happening. In london i set up and managed studio 180 as well and gallery 223 and those were places where a lot of the young artists of the time were coming through and a lot of musicians breaking out from our space so i got to be in the middle of it all and i was always fascinated by the idea that i would curate spaces and then the  artists and myself as part of that would make works within those spaces which then inspired new spaces!”

There is, for Leamon, a certain magic which can occur in creative spaces. An alchemy of sorts that comes about when creative people gather intentionally in a space.

“I've got this fascination with what it is that makes a work of art or a piece of writing or a song or something…what was the spark, what was the moment in time?

Human beings can create spaces that really invite internal thoughts which tend to create [more/internal] space for making wonderful artwork, whatever it may be.

I think it’s super important to be bouncing off of other people all the time when it comes to making  art. I mean all of the major art movements of all time have not necessarily been orchestrated but  they are a reflection of  multiple people that are bouncing  off each other, and one feeds the next to feed the next to feed the next…

Coming to a part of the south of Portugal, to a place with very little in terms of an art movement per se made me realise more of what I wanted to say, and I realised that the longer journey is the internal journey…and finding out a bit more about yourself.

My current feelings are that that’s where my [artistic] movement is  - inviting people  to come and be part of what I do now [at The Beekeepers and Estúdio Yucca]. It is a journey into environment but nature as an environment and that [nature] being the playground as opposed to a walled studio or a white wall gallery.”

Constructing The Beekeepers was a project which underlined the value of consistent creative practice. Building the structures which would eventually house artists on retreat became an artistic practice in itself. Leamon sees each space he creates as a celebration of the process and energy that went into making it.

“I stopped doing my  artwork for nearly a year whilst I built that place and I worked almost  every day of the week, probably 10 or maybe  even 15 hours a day, building, making things…it was a sculpture essentially, creating that place.

It  got me aware of practice…the whole thing of being able to master something. 

It’s really all about putting the hours in …creating, creating, creating until something comes out of it.

I came from a mindset and a time whereby you started and you might not even have an exhibition for 5/ 10 years , might not ever sell a work in your  life  but you still do it and you still make and you still create because it’s what you do. 

I’ve essentially practised for  25 years now.

Like anything, there’s been highs and lows and so The Beekeepers was an honouring of that, studio 180 and gallery 123 were an honouring of that…and this is what this exhibition is about for me, it’s a celebration not for other people really, but for me. 

This exhibition  will be the first time that I'm pulling in  a load of different works from different times and for me it's more a celebration of the time that was spent in between these works’ creation as opposed to the works themselves.”

Tom Leamon’s show will open on May 27th at 6PM in Galeria Augustine, R. Leite de Vasconcelos, 3A.