the armory show, new york, 2024: Tomo Campbell

For The Armory Show 2024, Cob is proud to present British artist Tomo Campbell in the Solo Section of the fair.

Inspired by a diverse array of source material, Tomo Campbell’s large-scale oil paintings constantly alter, extend and break down conventions. His abstracted depictions of ‘traditional’ subjects such as hunting parades and explorers exude an extraordinarily rich sense of vision. Layered arrangements of complementary colours, reminiscent of the Rococo and of tapestry, offer multiple focal points and keep the eye in constant motion. Balancing activity and stasis, confidence and doubt, his works occupy a fertile space somewhere between the known and the undiscovered.

More recently, Campbell explores a technique where each work is connected to the last through the use of recurring motifs. These subtle recurrences and re-figurations emphasise the significance of his whole trajectory as an ensemble - the effect being a disruptive sense of both sequence and simultaneity. The Armory Show presentation features a suite of nine new large-scale paintings - experienced as an all-encompassing installation. These works hang in an uninterrupted line, reminiscent of a traditional frieze - as iconography carries from one canvas to the next - it feels as if each painting is folding into the other.

This latest body of work traces back to one of the earliest of Campbell’s painting series that reference The Unicorn Tapestries ( c.1495-1505).  These seven, complex, late Gothic textiles - woven in wool, metallic threads, and silk, are on permanent display at The Cloisters, New York.  The large scale, sequential tapestries depict a group of noblemen and hunters in pursuit of a white Unicorn set within an idealised French landscape.

 

The booth walls are clad in an acid green toned Moiré silk, creating a vibrant backdrop alluding to the walls of palaces and stately homes that typically would display such textile antiquities. As well as referring back to the tapestries themselves Campbell’s work continues to be influenced by the distinctive aesthetics typical of the Rococo period that emanate luxurious excess.