Ciara Ferguson | Review of Pure | Temple Bar Gallery & Studios | The Sunday Independent | 1997
Celebrating Climent
One could be suspicious of the amount of hype surrounding 27-year-old Cork artist Tom Climent. After all this is his first show in Dublin and he is only two years out of the Crawford College. But that wouldn’t be fair. Having seen the exhibition in the Temple Bar Gallery I see what the fuss is about.
While Climent himself is quiet and reserved, and apparently uncomfortable with the attention, his canvasses tell a different story. Vibrant and luscious layers of colour, semi-abstract, semi-figurative, these paintings possess a confidence and self-assurance that belies his lack of experience.
“The paintings are my alter ego”, he says “They enable me to express myself. I want people to walk into a room and just want to look at them”.
Tom Climent is from Douglas, Cork, where he has his studio. He started painting while still in school after becoming mesmerized by a Matisse picture. After school he studied engineering for three years before finally coming around to the fact that painting was what he really wanted to do. For four years he studied at the Crawford and has had two solo shows in Cork. Last year he won the Victor Treacy Critics’ choice award which resulted in the current show.
“I’ve been working at it ten years but it is only in the last two years that things have begun to happen”, he says.
The provocative hedonistic titles like Near Wild Heaven, Your Blue Room and Spanish Elegy became the inspiration for the paintings. Sometimes I read something in a magazine or a book or hear a line from a song and think that would make a nice title. Then I start to think about the painting but it is the actual process of applying paint that works out the painting.
The work of the old Spanish masters like Velasquez and Goya are a strong influence. “My Dad is Spanish so I think I tend naturally towards the Spanish painters. I don’t particularly admire anything from this century.”
“I think you have to have a hunger to pursue a life of painting because financially it’s very difficult. Once I made the choice there was no going back. The hype doesn’t really make any difference to what I do. Selling is great (most of the show sold before the opening) but it’s not why you do it. That’s why it’s good that I live and work in Cork. It keeps my feet planted firmly on the ground”.
Temple Bar Gallery & Studios, 5-9 Temple Bar, Dublin 2, Ireland www.templebargallery.com