TOM POLO
stains, stages, strangers
7 August – 18 September 2021
STATION | MELBOURNE
Grounded in painting, Tom Polo’s practice is characterised by his distinctive style of abstracted figuration. Depicting partially obscured and fragmented figures – a painted index of limbs, eyes and hands – his paintings reflect on states of mental or physical transit to encourage sustained moments of looking and being.
A new series of painted works on paper depict closely cropped faces or bodies framed within the composition of the page. Using the ‘wet-on-wet’ watercolour painting technique advocated by Rudolf Steiner and employed by Hilma af Klint, Polo applies multiple layers, allowing the paint to pool in some areas and scrubbing back in others. The works are dense and tactile, with the rich, velvety colours creating an intimate painterly portrait.
Polo’s exhibition title is evocative of the shifting nature of our experience in these turbulent times. Indicated through the application of watery, amorphous pools of paint, ‘stains’ reflects on the physical act of mark making and the emotional gesture of imprinting experience or memory. ‘stages’ refers to Polo’s recurring interest in performance and theatre, where the painting acts as a site for a stage where dramas are played out. With poetic introspection, ‘strangers’ summons a sense of physical distance to one another, tweaking our desire for intimacy and how this is dictated by social and physical space.
Polo’s auditorium of over twenty framed works on paper reflect the artist’s flickering stream of consciousness between notions of conversation, persona and characterisation. Opposing the absolute through the fluidity of painting, stains, stages, strangers encourages an experience of expansiveness whilst curiously questioning the emotional and performative relationships between people within social space.
Tom Polo
stains, stages, strangers 2021
Installation view
Tom Polo
stains, stages, strangers 2021
Installation view
Tom Polo
stains, stages, strangers 2021
Installation view
Tom Polo
stains, stages, strangers 2021
Installation view
Tom Polo
stains, stages, strangers 2021
Installation view
Tom Polo
stains stages strangers (soft circumference) 2021
acrylic and Flashe on paper
82.0 × 63.5 cm framed
Tom Polo
stains stages strangers (side eye side line) 2021
acrylic, watercolour and coloured pencil on paper
82.0 × 63.5 cm framed
Tom Polo
stains stages strangers (return to form) 2021
acrylic and Flashe on paper
82.0 × 63.5 cm framed
Tom Polo
stains stages strangers (every easy ride) 2021
acrylic, Flashe and coloured pencil on paper
82.0 × 63.5 cm framed
Tom Polo
stains stages strangers (navigate elsewhere) 2021
acrylic and Flashe on paper
82.0 × 63.5 cm framed
Tom Polo
stains stages strangers (serial shapeshifter) 2021
acrylic and Flashe on paper
82.0 × 63.5 cm framed
Tom Polo
stains stages strangers (leigh bowery bird) 2021
acrylic and Flashe on paper
82.0 × 63.5 cm framed
Tom Polo
stains stages strangers (red reservoir) 2021
acrylic Flashe and graphite on paper
82.0 × 63.5 cm framed
Tom Polo
stains stages strangers (endurance test) 2021
acrylic and Flashe on paper
82.0 × 63.5 cm framed
Tom Polo
stains stages strangers (angel dance/ room to rest) 2021
acrylic and Flashe on paper
82.0 × 63.5 cm framed
Tom Polo
stains stages strangers (starting to begin) 2021
acrylic, Flashe and oil stick on paper
82.0 × 63.5 cm framed
Tom Polo
stains stages strangers (feeling full, many mouths) 2021
acrylic and Flashe on paper
82.0 × 63.5 cm framed
Tom Polo
stains stages strangers (I can no longer absorb you) 2021
acrylic on paper
82.0 × 63.5 cm framed
Tom Polo
stains stages strangers (carry on) 2021
acrylic and Flashe on paper
82.0 × 63.5 cm framed
Tom Polo
stains stages strangers (lingering limbs) 2021
acrylic and Flashe on paper
82.0 × 63.5 cm framed
Tom Polo
stains stages strangers (leave or let go) 2021
acrylic and Flashe on paper
82.0 × 63.5 cm framed
Tom Polo
stains stages strangers (return of the double drifter) 2021
acrylic and Flashe on paper
82.0 × 63.5 cm framed
Tom Polo
stains stages strangers (the edge of anywhere else) 2021
acrylic and Flashe on paper
82.0 × 63.5 cm framed
Tom Polo
stains stages strangers (various voices, alexander’s armadillo) 2021
acrylic and Flashe on paper
82.0 × 63.5 cm framed
Tom Polo
stains stages strangers (still still/ the cape of cope) 2021
acrylic on paper
82.0 × 63.5 cm framed
Tom Polo
stains stages strangers (single gesture vessel head) 2021
acrylic and Flashe on paper
82.0 × 63.5 cm framed
Tom Polo
stains stages strangers (green listener) 2021
acrylic and Flashe on paper
82.0 × 63.5 cm framed
Tom Polo
stains stages strangers (denial of the dark) 2021
acrylic and Flashe on paper
82.0 × 63.5 cm framed
Tom Polo
stains stages strangers (ulterior motive part two) 2021
acrylic and Flashe on paper
82.0 × 63.5 cm framed
Tom Polo
stains stages strangers (final fade) 2021
acrylic and Flashe on paper
82.0 × 63.5 cm framed
