Artist of the Month October 2021
Date: 09/07/2021
Place: Studio Edel Extra, Friedrichstraße 17, Müllnerstraße 22, 90429 Nürnberg
It’s a Thursday evening, and I am on my way to meet Tom Pike. I recently met him by chance earlier in the week at Cafe Kiosk im Rosenaupark. While sitting with a friend and having a chat I caught the words “exhibition” and “you are already an artist”. Curious to figure out where the conversation was coming from, I decided on spontaneity and approached Tom. He was overjoyed and immediately agreed to be interviewed for English Post.
Lydia: Hi Tom, thanks for picking me up and for the invitation. I haven’t been here for almost one year. The last time I was visiting the exhibition of Anna Steward’s “Cherry Dream”.
Tom Pike: I’m delighted to welcome you into my studio today and have the chance to talk with you about my art. Actually it’s the first time I’m doing this.
Lydia: And I am really looking forward to learning more about you and your work. Let’s start with the question and answer game:
Portrait © Tom Pike
1) Are you a night owl or an early bird?
Tom Pike: Totally a night owl.
2) Where do you get your inspiration for your art from?
Tom Pike: Frustration and imagination…I’ve only been painting a couple of years – it started as an antidote to creative frustrations I had in my day job…and I have long lived with fantasy and imagination as regular thought patterns.
3) Do you have any artistic role models?
Tom Pike: Not really…a role model suggests someone I look up to in terms of ability or their thoughts, methods, etc. I don’t aspire to be like anyone else, I paint for purely selfish, almost therapeutic reasons and as such I spend most of my time thinking about myself and the work.
However, there are lots of artists’ work I like…off the top of my head…Richie Culver, David Von Bahr, Anselm Reyle, Andy Kassier…and Robert Nava…and I’m sure there’s lots more I’ll discover.
4) Do you get angry about criticism?
Tom Pike: Nope…not with my painting anyway. 😉
5) What are you proud of?
Tom Pike: My family, friends and partner…and my West German pottery collection.
If It Bleeds… by Tom Pike
Photo © Lydia M. Taylor
6) Where would you like to be exhibited once in your lifetime?
Tom Pike: The ‘Theatre of Dreams’, Old Trafford football ground, home to the mighty Manchester United…or the Konig Galerie in Berlin.
How Can I Be Of Service © Tom Pike
7) What is your favourite place and your favourite part of town in Nuremberg?
Tom Pike: Balazzo Brozzi, at Rosenau Park Kiosk and the Bodega El Gato…I live in my favorite part of town, Gostenhof.
8) What is your favourite dish?
Tom Pike: Grilled Prawns
9) What do you always have at home in the fridge?
Tom Pike: Wine and beer
10) Who would you definitely not want to sit at a table with?
Tom Pike: Anyone who fucking gossips!
11) What character traits do you appreciate or value in others?
Tom Pike: Honesty, fun, and kindness
12) How do you relax?
Tom Pike: Wine or beer…and a crossword
13) Where is your next trip going to be?
Tom Pike: Berlin with work I think…and then driving back to Manchester with my partner and dog for Christmas with my family.
14) What dream do you want to fulfill yourself?
Tom Pike: Win the lottery and paint with no financial concerns…actually…just doing anything with no financial concerns would be the dream scenario…so I suppose I’d like to bring down a corrupt capitalist economic system based on constant growth…work out a better system and then live in it.
15) Life is too short to …
Tom Pike: Worry what others think.
Lydia: Thank you for taking time to meet with me.
Tom Pike: My pleasure!
Reluctant Choir Boy © Tom Pike
Additional info about Tom Pike:
Tom Pike (b.1978, Stockport, UK) lives and works in Nuremberg, Germany. Tom graduated from the Royal College of Art in 2003, with a master’s degree in Menswear Fashion. He currently works as a Sportswear Design Director at Adidas and paints at the weekends in his home studio. After completing his studies, one of his first jobs was at Levi Strauss & Co in London. Further jobs followed in the fashion industry for well-known jeans and sportswear manufacturers. When he suddenly became unemployed he decided to work for the Adidas Group and moved from England to Germany and has since found his home in the district of Gostenhof. In March 2019 during the first Covid-19 lockdown, Tom decided to start painting abstract canvases in an open-air space, underneath a bridge crossing the river Pegnitz. He made a conscious decision to go to this place for his artistic work because it was quiet and in some parts also ‘secret’ with a lot of space to work. The only downside to working there was having to wait an average of three hours for his pictures to dry.
Drawn Curtains Series © Tom Pike
He works primarily with spray paint and acrylic on canvas and his methods comprise moments of intuitive expression and spontaneity within an evolving, but predetermined process. The focus of most of his paintings are geometric patterns, sketches and abstract figures. His works celebrate the unremarkable moments of everyday life.
He himself says, “So far, I find that one canvas leads to the next as I learn about my relationship with the marks I make and discover the aesthetic outcomes of the ideas and intuition I follow”.
Tom showed his first exhibition at the Edel Extra Gallery (Nurnberg) in March 2020 ‘Achtung! Wet Paint’ and his second in September 2021 the ‘Drawn Curtains’ Series. So far, he has exhibited at the Edel Extra exclusively. Run by volunteers, the Edel Extra is a gallery, a Kunstverein and a experimental space in what used to be a bakery about 100 years ago. More exhibitions will follow soon.
More about: Tom Pike
Contact: tompike17@googlemail.com
Official website: https://pike-projects.com
Insta: https://www.instagram.com/pikeprojects17/
