THOMAS HANCOCK – Mass in Flux – 18 March-11 April, 2025

Thomas Hancock’s exhibition Mass in Flux is a new series of oil paintings that lean into process-based methods to explore abstraction. He began these works by sculpting, photographing and digitally manipulating forms that became ‘models’, then employing his skills in still-life painting to depict solitary objects in fictional spaces. 

‘I employ chance and happenstance in conjunction with a critical eye when creating my subject matter. The subjects of my paintings are not permanent, finished objects, but rather created specifically to be in a painting, and then destroyed, sometimes repurposed into new constructions. Due to the impermanence of the materials I use, I am able to continuously manipulate these constructions throughout the photography process. Finally, through digital manipulation I can finalise my blueprint for the eventual painting, applying and adjusting colour, composition etc. In essence I am creating a figurative painting of something that exists, or has existed, and imbuing it with qualities of something abstract or imagined.’ 

In Hancock’s hands each sculpted subject comes alive in intense colour as a new original object, replete with dimples, grooves, and wrinkles. Each form has strong character and appears to have the potential to move and reshape itself. None are completely at rest. They are masses in flux.

ARTISTS TALK – Thomas Hancock & Janna van Hasselt – Wed 19 March, 12noon

 

            

Kō Whakapunake te maunga
Kō Wairoa te awa
Kō Takitimu te waka
Kō Ngāti Kahungunu ki Wairoa te iwi
E tipu ake au I te Awakairangi
Kō Ōtepoti te kainga
Kō Thomas Hancock toku Ingoa

Thomas Hancock is an Ōtepoti, Dunedin based artist who grew up in te Awakairangi, Lower Hutt. Hancock has a Master of Fine Arts with Distinction from Ilam School of Fine Arts, University of Canterbury. Hancock has been exhibiting his work throughout Aotearoa and Australia.