Tom Polo works across painting and installation to explore how conversation, gesture and emotional exchange can be transformed into recordings of social interaction and the self. Polo’s practice is characterised by his distinctive style of abstracted figuration, rendered in bold, expansive fields of colour. His paintings depict partially obscured and fragmented figures – a painted index of limbs, eyes and hands – through a conceptual and physical merging of observation and imagination, to encourage sustained moments of looking and being.
Polo was a recent finalist in the Geelong Contemporary Art Prize and the National Works on Paper Prize in 2022. He was a finalist in the Ramsay Art Prize, Australia’s premier prize for emerging artists (2021), and has been a finalist several times in the Sir John Sulman Art Prize (2021, 2020, 2017).
Polo was the winner of the Brett Whiteley Travelling Scholarship, presented by the Art Gallery of New South Wales (2015); the Redlands Konica Minolta Art Prize (2014), and the Art & Australia/ Credit Suisse Private Banking Contemporary Art Award (2011). Significant exhibitions include the 2022 Adelaide Biennial of Australian Art: Free State, Art Gallery of South Australia, Adelaide (2022); The National: New Australian Art, Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney (2019); Primavera 2017: Young Australian Artists, Museum of Contemporary Art, Sydney (2017); and Painting, More Painting, Australian Centre for Contemporary Art, Melbourne (2016). He has undertaken residencies at Cité Internationale des Arts, Paris; ACME Studios, London; Artspace, Sydney; and Palazzo Monti, Brescia.
Emotional Patrol (In Memory Of Me)
2017
acrylic and Flashe on canvas
214.0 x 183.0 cm
Grab what you can while it's still yours (Dreaming of you)
2017
acrylic and Flashe on canvas
60.0 x 50.0 cm
curtain call (la gente partano)
2017
acrylic and Flashe on canvas
182.0 x 138.0 cm
best actress in a supporting role
2017
acrylic and Flashe on canvas
60.0 x 50.0 cm
The fool faces sideways (see how they resolve)
2015
site responsive wall painting (acrylic on wall)
dimensions variable
The fool faces sideways (see how they resolve)
2015
site responsive wall painting (acrylic on wall)
dimensions variable
Good for it all
2015
acrylic and Flashe on canvas
90.0 x 90.0 cm
Selective Memory
2016
acrylic on canvas
62.0 x 52.0 cm
Recent Positions
2016
Installation view
Emotional Patrol
2017
Installation view
Primavera 2017: Young Australian Artists
2017
installation view
Primavera 2017: Young Australian Artists
2017
installation view
2015 NSW Visual Arts Fellowship (Emerging)
2015
installation view
(photograph: Zan Wimberly)
The Most Elaborate Disguise (7)
2019
acrylic and Flashe on paper
48.0 x 36.0 cm
The Most Elaborate Disguise (14)
2019
acrylic and Flashe on paper
48.0 x 36.0 cm
The Most Elaborate Disguise (15)
2019
acrylic and Flashe on paper
48.0 x 36.0 cm
The Most Elaborate Disguise (33)
2019
acrylic and Flashe on paper
48.0 x 36.0 cm
The Most Elaborate Disguise (38)
2019
acrylic and Flashe on paper
48.0 x 36.0 cm
the last to leave
2019
acrylic and Flashe on canvas
61.0 x 51.0 cm
Recent Positions 14
2014
acrylic on paper
32.0 x 24.0 cm
Recent Positions 18
2014
acrylic on paper
32.0 x 24.0 cm
The National: New Australian Art
2019
Installation View
Art Gallery of New South Wales
The National: New Australian Art
2019
Installation View
Art Gallery of New South Wales
Paris Drawings Book Launch
2019
Installation View
STATION | Melbourne
then she appears (Performance)
2016
acrylic on canvas
62.0 x 52.0 cm
the first to know
2019
acrylic and Flashe on canvas
61.0 x 51.0 cm
leg to stand on (i)
2014
acrylic and Flashe on canvas
90.0 x 90.0 cm
a face to replace
2017
acrylic and Flashe on canvas
60.0 x 50.0 cm
exit strategy
2020
acrylic and Flashe on canvas
198.0 x 213.0 cm
we bury, we rise
2020
acrylic and Flashe on canvas
198.0 x 213.0 cm
exit strategy
2020
installation view
retreat and return (the arrival)
2020
close encounter
2021
acrylic and Flashe on canvas
60.0 x 50.0 cm
stains stages strangers (soft circumference)
2021
acrylic and Flashe on paper
82.0 x 63.5 cm framed
stains stages strangers (side eye side line)
2021
acrylic, watercolour and coloured pencil on paper
82.0 x 63.5 cm framed
stains stages strangers (return to form)
2021
acrylic and Flashe on paper
82.0 x 63.5 cm framed
stains stages strangers (every easy ride)
2021
acrylic, Flashe and coloured pencil on paper
82.0 x 63.5 cm framed
stains stages strangers (navigate elsewhere)
2021
acrylic and Flashe on paper
82.0 x 63.5 cm framed
stains stages strangers (serial shapeshifter)
2021
acrylic and Flashe on paper
82.0 x 63.5 cm framed
stains stages strangers (leigh bowery bird)
2021
acrylic and Flashe on paper
82.0 x 63.5 cm framed
stains stages strangers (red reservoir)
2021
acrylic Flashe and graphite on paper
82.0 x 63.5 cm framed
stains stages strangers (endurance test)
2021
acrylic and Flashe on paper
82.0 x 63.5 cm framed
stains stages strangers (angel dance/ room to rest)
2021
acrylic and Flashe on paper
82.0 x 63.5 cm framed
stains stages strangers (starting to begin)
2021
acrylic, Flashe and oil stick on paper
82.0 x 63.5 cm framed
stains stages strangers (feeling full, many mouths)
2021
acrylic and Flashe on paper
82.0 x 63.5 cm framed
stains stages strangers (I can no longer absorb you)
2021
acrylic on paper
82.0 x 63.5 cm framed
stains stages strangers (carry on)
2021
acrylic and Flashe on paper
82.0 x 63.5 cm framed
stains stages strangers (lingering limbs)
2021
acrylic and Flashe on paper
82.0 x 63.5 cm framed
stains stages strangers (return of the double drifter)
2021
acrylic and Flashe on paper
82.0 x 63.5 cm framed
stains stages strangers (the edge of anywhere else)
2021
acrylic and Flashe on paper
82.0 x 63.5 cm framed