Queer | Tom Christophersen

Tom A Finalist in the 2024 Darling Portrait Prize

25/03/2024 | Comments: 0 | Posted by: Tom Christophersen | In: Art

I am incredibly excited to be able to announce that I am one of the 25 Finalists in the 2024 Darling Portrait Prize. The Darling Portrait Prize is a biennial national prize for Australian portrait painting honouring the legacy of Mr L Gordon Darling AC CMG (1921-2015).

The Finalist Exhibition will be shown at the National Portrait Gallery from the 22nd of June to the 22 September 2024. Bookings for tickets will open soon but you can keep updated by checking in with the Prize’s website.

The winner of the $75,000 cash prize will be announced on the 21st of June 2024. I would love that if you are able to visit the exhibition you could tag me in any pictures of the show or my work so that I can see. The gallery is open from 10am – 5pm daily and is located on King Edward Terrace, Canberra.

From the Darling’s website: “The judges are seeking the most compelling recent Australian portrait painting, whether they honour or push the genre, offer unexpected insights into well-known faces, or centre everyday people to explore the breadth of Australian identity.”

The 2023 Halloween Polaroid Project Is Here!

01/10/2023 | Comments: 0 | Posted by: Tom Christophersen | In: Art, Photography

Happy Halloween! My annual spooky Polaroid Project has *just* launched. You can pick up a one of a kind, signed, Polaroid right here.

This year there are 18 Polaroids available for sale as well as a brand new short film. The first 2 Polaroid sales will come with signed, original props used in the ’23 Polaroid film. The first 10 Polaroid sales come with an A5, numbered, signed, glossy, hand-embellished print of a still from the first project.

Please note this series will only be available for sale during the month of October 2023. At midnight on Halloween (31/10/2023) any unsold Polaroids will be destroyed.

Plus, if you are subscribed to my Patreon you can check out a whole bunch of behind the scenes treats, exclusive footage and deleted scenes from the film. You can also download and view the film and all the promo videos in high definition for your own viewing pleasure throughout spooky season.

Happy Halloween! 🪓

Beautiful Bizarre Interview with Freddy Grant

07/11/2018 | Comments: 0 | Posted by: Tom Christophersen | In: Art

“Portraiture and performance artist Tom Christophersen knows the two disciplines go hand in hand. His portraits are a performance and he takes this truth to another level by more often than not working with performance artists as subjects. Christophersen grew up in Adelaide and is now based in Sydney, Australia. He is a theatre maker, performer, visual artist, facilitator, designer and illustrator, who likes “Twin Peaks, The Pixies and dark streaks” and is inspired by everything from succulent gardens to the Jonestown Massacre.

His works are a mixture of the macabre and the joyful that catch the more bizarre sides of his subjects. Christophersen’s cheeky and dark sense of humour, along with his politics, is evident in his compositions. Layered with symbols and meaning, he takes the great tradition of portrait as person, not simply a face and body, into the modern age using technology and millennial iconography in surprising and challenging ways.” – Freddy Grant

Check out the full interview over at Beautiful Bizarre by clicking here.

INTERFACING – NOW SHOWING TIL OCT. 6TH

13/09/2018 | Comments: 0 | Posted by: Tom Christophersen | In: Art

‘INTERFACING’ with Michael Simms is now open at Stanley Street Gallery til the 6th of October.

Gallery Hours:

Wednesday – Friday 11am – 6pm
Saturday 11 – 5pm
or by appointment
Phone +61 (02) 9368 1142

Preview the works on the Stanley Street website here.

Read about the exhibition on the Beautiful Bizarre website here.

Download an exhibition catalogue here.

Photography by Michael Simms

Photography by Michael Simms

‘INTERFACING’ @ STANLEY STREET GALLERY

27/07/2018 | Comments: 0 | Posted by: Tom Christophersen | In: Art

12th September – 6th October 2018

Stanley Street Gallery, Sydney

‘INTERFACING’ is an explosive, collaborative figurative exhibition between two of Australia’s most exciting emerging visual artists. Tom Christophersen and Michael Simms present ‘INTERFACING’, an exploration into our flawed and often pixelated representations of ourselves. In an age of digital expression, ‘INTERFACING’ prises apart notions of dangerous self-representation and distorted identities via technology.

RSVP to the opening night of ‘INTERFACING’ here.

Download a media release for ‘INTERFACING’ here.

Hetero Normativity Kills is back

11/02/2018 | Comments: 0 | Posted by: Tom Christophersen | In: Art

Just in time for Valentine’s Day, I have re-released the iconic ‘Hetero Normativity Kills’ art by Melbourne-based, collective @male.ritual. As the collective disbanded, they released the art to the public.

From the Male Ritual Website:

“Male Ritual is ending, but heteronormative culture continues.

‘Warning’ artwork is now free to use through Creative Commons. Create your own stickers, patches and merch. Fundraise for a queer charity in your city.

Male Ritual is Social Trauma” — Sadie Smith (Peeple Watchin’, G.L.O.S.S.)”

So I’m keeping their work alive.

And you can purchase it here.

ALL of the proceeds I receive from sales will be donated directly to a LGBTQI charity.

2 Weeks Til Business Unfinished Premieres

20/09/2015 | Comments: 0 | Posted by: Tom Christophersen | In: Theatre

Photography by Sophie Haylen

There is just under two weeks til I debut my first ever solo show at Crack Theatre Festival and I can’t believe how quickly it has come and how excited I am to show you what I’ve made.

‘Business Unfinished’ started a year ago when I applied for PACT‘s ‘Vacant Room‘ program. I was completely obsessed with the whole notion of the paranormal. I was watching a lot of really trashy American Ghost shows and 90s horror movies. I was fascinated by the ideathat people experience terrific and unexplainable spectacles in their homes (paranormal or otherwise) that they were willing to ignore or rationalise.

I wanted to make a show which incorporated people’s donated ghost stories with my own interviews with my Mum, about my Dad – who saw ghosts in our family homes before my parents divorced when I was 9.

After my PACT residency, I received a lot of encouragement and positive feedback about the show. I very much wanted to turn my residency piece into a ‘fully formed show’. A cabaret exorcism that only I could perform without being possessed by the devil. I applied to Crack. I got in – and ‘Business Unfinished’, the show, was conceived. The new material is satanic, scary, saucy and secret.

Below are the times and dates. I hope you can make it out to Newcastle to come and see it and heaps of other awesome stuff playing during THIS IS NOT ART. It’s also my 28th birthday so definitely come and have an ‘I-beat-the-27-club’ cocktail if you’re in the area.

Business Unfinished
Playing at ‘The Crack House’ – Market Square, Hunter Street, NEWCASTLE
Friday 2 October – 10:30 pm – 11:20 pm
Saturday 3 October – 11:30 pm – 12:20 am
Cost: FREE (+ your soul)

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