TOM CLIMENT

essay by Cristín Leach

additional texts by Mark Ewart, Carissa Farrell, Mary McCarthy and Michael Waldron
ISBN 978 1910140 529    120 pages (hardback)   23 x 25 cm   128 illus

This major monograph on the artist Tom Climent documents his work over the last decade or so, although his career spans three decades. In the words of Cristín Leach, "his paintings have long offered a mediation on life, making and being. They embrace and make visual his understanding of the possibilities of change. For Climent, painting is an act of searching, and his works an invitation to the viewer to join in. From cave-like shelters to abstract terrains, executed in a scintillating explosion of colour, he seeks to capture something dormant that has returned to life." 

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EXTRACT

"Across this body of work, Climent conjures a pull-push between growth and decomposition, stillness and movement, presence and escape. This see-saw could be regarded as a painterly extension of one law of physics: for each action there is an equal and opposite reaction. It is to be found in the relationship between painter and painting, between painting and painting-viewer, between painting as a tool for seeking knowledge and as a container for it. These are pairs of actions, and all of this work emerges from his studio in Cork city, the same workshop he has painted in for the last thirty years. Studio (2024) is a portrait of that place as a kernel, a womb from which all of this can emerge, a nucleus from which it can blossom [º18]. 
          There is lull and crescendo in this work. From the quieter pieces to the more explosive, vibrant blooms, each offers a moment of revelation, showing the circular nature of time and the repeat promises of the seasons. There is hope too in these paintings, in the opening and unfolding of petals and planes, and in their beauty. Climent’s compositions lift the soul with the aesthetic pleasure of encountering them. They provide sanctuary and refuge, visually, emotionally, and, yes, intellectually too. His occasional use of gold paint points to the precious alchemy of it all."

— Cristín Leach

published 2025