photo by Caryl Roese, 2003
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CERI THOMAS
Born: 1958 in London to Welsh parents; trained: 1978-1982 at University College London in Italian & History of Art, at the same time attended lifedrawing classes at the Slade School of Fine Art; 1983-7 M.A. at University of Wales Aberythwyth. Currently, he is a Research Fellow at the University of Glamorgan in charge of the Loan Art Collection of Ernest Zobole[click] (1927-99).
 "Tender Conquest", 1989 oil tempera on lined board 22x33cm |
 "Piazza del Popolo Rome" 1995/2004, photocollage & watercolour on paper 86x86cm |
 "Ty-tea Guard-gardd", 1998 watercolour & pencil on paper 64x90cm |
(1=private collection, 2=artist's collection, part of his research portfolio, 3=artist's collection)
Caroline Juler wrote in Planet 153: "Ceri Thomas's own passion for Italian Renaissance art, the work of Stanley Spencer,
Ernest Zobole[click]
and Alfred Janes to name a few of his current obsessions, have made a curious impact on his art. Meticulously drawn with soft shadows and
crisp outlines, his pictures contain all sorts of erudite references, scholarly jokes and hidden meanings...His paintings and prints straddle impossible
distances, in concepts as well as time, and the interplay of Renaissance symbolism and Surrealism in his work is highly individual...Thomas is in many
ways an art historian's artist, fascinated by symbolism and the connections between words, concepts and images...It sometimes seems that Thomas the
communicator and Thomas the painter are at odds. There are so many references in his pictures that looking at them can be like entering a maze...Wales
and questions of identity are recurring motifs in Ceri Thomas's art, as is his longstanding passion for Italy and its culture".
Awards: 1985 scholarship by the Italian Institute; 1989-90 Council of Europe Higher Education (Painting) Scholarship; 1999 winner of the Gwyn Alf Williams Memorial Award .
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Ceri Thomas is a Swansea-based artist and art historian who studied art, art history and Italian at University College London, the University of Wales, Aberystwyth and the Accademia di Belle Arti in Florence.
Over the last twenty years he has exhibited his work primarily in Wales, although it has been shown further afield, namely in Italy, France and the United States. He has been a frequent visitor to Italy since the early Eighties and therefore it is perhaps not surprising that Italy and Wales and their respective cultures have been, and continue to be, influential upon his art and ideas.
A decade ago, he spent one year living in Dylan Thomas' Cwmdonkin Drive home. This led to artworks, inspired by its original front pavement, which were subsequently shown in a one-person exhibition entitled Patria at the Glynn Vivian Art Gallery Swansea and the innovative group exhibition Pwy Ydym Ni?/What Makes Wales? held at the National Museum and Gallery Cardiff in 2000-01.
In 2002, he was elected to the Welsh Group and in 2003 showed with them in Chicago. Also in 2002, he joined eleven other printmakers at Swansea Print Workshop for the prestigious Dylan Thomas Project especially when the october wind. The resultant sets of twelve limited edition prints are touring here and abroad. At present one set is on show in New York and another set comes to the Washington Gallery Penarth in March 2004.
Ceri Thomas has written on the art and artists of modern Wales since the early Nineties and articles by him can be found in Planet magazine and elsewhere. In 2000, he was Researcher/Consultant for the BBC Wales television series Painting the Dragon. Last year he contributed a chapter to Kirstine Brander Dunthorne's book Drawn from Wales: a School of Art in Swansea 1853-2003.
Currently, he is a Research Fellow at the University of Glamorgan in charge of the Loan Art Collection of Ernest Zobole (1927-99). He runs the Ernest Zobole Art Gallery at the University and is working on the Ernest Zobole Retrospective which will tour Wales in 2004-05.
Commissions: 2000 research fellow for Ernest Zobole Art Collection at the University of Glamorgan; 2001 portrait of the athlete Colin Jackson for
the National Assembly of Wales Cardiff.
International Links:
academia: 1980-1 attended the Arts Faculty at the University of Florence & the Academia & studios of Pietro Annigoni;
1985 research for his post-graduate theses in Florence; 1989-90 attended studios of Luigi Falai;
exhibitions abroad: has exhibited in Italy, France & USA; participated in a touring prints exhibition which included the Chrysler Building in New York.