• Installation view of Tom Polo, will you, fill me,2022, Yavuz Gallery Singapore
  • Installation view of Tom Polo, will you, fill me,2022, Yavuz Gallery Singapore
  • Tom Polo, the runway to return, 2022, acrylic and Flashe on canvas, 198 x 213 cm
  • Tom Polo, even shadows need shadows, 2022, acrylic, Flashe and water soluble wax pastel on canvas, 213 x 198 cm
  • Tom Polo, in a part of your mind I am you (slow ghost), 2022, acrylic, Flashe and water soluble wax pastel on canvas, 213 x 198 cm
  • Tom Polo, mountains made of you, 2022, acrylic and Flashe on canvas, 213 x 198 cm
  • Tom Polo, carve in the dark, 2022, acrylic and Flashe on canvas, 182 x 138 cm
  • Tom Polo, another secret shield, 2022, acrylic and Flashe on canvas, 182 x 138 cm
  • Tom Polo, sway away (what about now), 2022, acrylic and Flashe on canvas, 182 x 138 cm
  • Tom Polo, soft secrets, too careful to carry, 2022, acrylic and Flashe on canvas, 182 x 138 cm
  • Tom Polo, false feeling (the end of endurance), 2022, acrylic, Flashe and water soluble wax pastel on canvas, 182 x 138 cm
  • Tom Polo, not before and never after, 2022, acrylic, Flashe and water soluble wax pastel on canvas, 182 x 138 cm
  • Tom Polo, will you, fill me, 2022, acrylic on canvas, 60 x 50 cm
  • Tom Polo, head theatre, 2022, acrylic, Flashe and water soluble wax pastel on canvas, 60 x 50 cm
  • Tom Polo, double doubt, 2021, acrylic and Flashe on canvas, 182 x 138 cm
  • Tom Polo, soft strokes, easy ride, 2021, acrylic and flashe on canvas, 182 x 138 cm
  • Tom Polo, an extension giant gestures, 2021, acrylic and flashe on canvas, 182 x 138 cm
  • Tom Polo, afterwards I am still you, 2021, acrylic and Flashe on canvas, 60 x 50 cm

Tom Polo

Tom Polo (b. 1985) is one of the most acclaimed painters of his generation in Australia. He uses painting and painted environments to explore how conversation, gesture and exchange are embodied acts of portraiture. Incorporating text and figurative elements, his works draw upon acute personal observations, absurdist encounters and imagined personas. An ongoing interest across his practice is the emotional and performative relationships between people and the social and psychological spaces they occupy.

Polo holds a BFA and MFA from the University of New South Wales, Sydney (Australia). He has exhibited extensively across Australia. Recent curated shows include: FREE/STATE, the 2022 Adelaide Biennial of Australian Art; Contact Us, Cement Fondu, Sydney (2020); The National, Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney (2019); Beyond Reason: exploring the logic of the imagination, Queensland University of Technology Art Museum (2018); and Primavera 2017: Young Australian Artists, Museum of Contemporary Art, Sydney (2017).

He has been a finalist of many prestigious art prizes in Australia, including the Archibald Prize (2018), the Sir John Sulman Prize (2021, 2019), the Ramsay Art Prize (2021), amongst others. He is the winner of the 2015 Brett Whiteley Traveling Scholarship and the Parramatta Creative Fellowship, City of Parramatta, Australia; and in 2011 was awarded the Credit Suisse Private Banking Contemporary Art Award. Polo’s works are in numerous public and private collections, such as the Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney, Australia; Artbank, Australia; and the Joyce Nissan Collection, Melbourne, Australia.

Exhibitions