Articles & Reviews

Irish Examiner : Tom Climent | Cork artist in demand as colourful canvases trip the light fantastic 

Ellie O’Byrne 2021


 

Irish Arts Review : Shifting Sands

Mark Ewart 2020

 


The Irish Times : Review of Aspect at Solomon Fine Art

Aidan Dunne 2018


The Sunday Times : Review of Latitudes at Dunamaise Arts Centre

Cristin Leach 2018


The Visual Artists’ News Sheet : Review of Latitudes at Dunamaise Arts Centre

Carissa Farrell 2018


Tom Climent: A Place Found, Nash 19 Sternview Gallery, Cork

Saturday, October 04, 2014

Tom Climent has built a solid reputation for paintings that seduce the eye, and compositions that smoulder with theatrical tension and atmosphere.

The energy and expressiveness of early work has come to be replaced by a calmer and more contemplative mood, as the artist now utilises subtle layering of muted colour and texture. Indeed, this collection of oil on canvas paintings suggests the artist is at his peak.
Climent’s subject matter centres on anonymous architectural forms that rest within spatial environments that are correspondingly indistinct and remote. The structures imply a fortress or barricades devoid of any sense of human presence.
Any such urge however to apply a rational logic to these paintings and turn them into recognisable subjects, is in ways, not part of the deal. First and foremost they are a celebration of shape and colour and in purely sensory terms, Climent’s paintings are not unlike the colour-field abstraction of Joseph Albers or Mark Rothko. The main difference being the artists’ trademark ‘flatness’ is folded by Climent into a representation of solidity through a series of intricate, origami manoeuvres carried out by some unseen force.
This notion that a higher power rendered the forms that Climent paints, seems oddly appropriate, as there is monumentality to the relatively larger works on show. When these structures soar upwards — especially in the beautiful Haida — they scaffold tantalising flashes of iridescent colour that draws the eye to their pinnacle, making the paintings seem not only older, but even larger than their modest dimensions suggest.


The Sunday Independant : What Lies Beneath

Niall MacMonagle 2016


The Sunday Times : Season Map Review at Liss Ard Estate

John P O’Sullivan 2015


The Sunday Times : Final State Review at BlueLeaf Gallery

Cristin Leach 2012


Dictionary of Living Irish Artists

Robert O’Byrne 2010

 


Representing Art in Ireland

The Fenton Gallery : Alannah Hopkins 2008

   


Irish Buyers Guide to Art 2004


The Irish Examiner : Review of New Paintings at Fenton Gallery

The Fenton Gallery 2003


The Irish Examiner : Featured Artist Cork Arts Fest 2000

Alannah Hopkin


The Sunday Times : Review of Dancing Parade at Triskel Arts Centre

Alannah Hopkin 1998


The Irish Times : Pure at Temple Bar Gallery & Studios

Brian Fallon 1997


The Irish Times : Tony O’Malley Award

Hilary Pyle 1997