About
Tom Kemp received his early training in calligraphy, typography, and lettering. He was particularly fascinated by the brush-written inscriptions on classical Roman buildings. After studying the technique for several years, he published a book on the subject and taught it in classes around the world.
Believing formal writing to be necessarily abstract, he sought to push this idea to its limit: what would remain if all language were removed from writing? This inquiry led to a long series of paintings exploring this concept.
About ten years ago, Tom Kemp began learning to throw pots on a wheel. He found the real-time nature of making a form without editing it, allowing a formal structure to grow under his control, to be very ‘calligraphic’. He worked to combine this dynamic building of three-dimensional surfaces with the equally dynamic two-dimensional conjuring of written marks. His current work is the result of this synthesis.
