TOM LEIGHTONAppropriation of Space

THE CYNTHIA CORBETT GALLERY

T. +44 (0) 20 8947 6782 M. UK +44 (0) 7939 085 076

M. US +1 773 600 7719

info@thecynthiacorbettgallery.com

www.thecynthiacorbettgallery.com

LONDON

Tom Leighton Appropriation of Space

An off-site exhibition presented by The Cynthia Corbett Gallery

Gallery 27, 27 Cork Street, Mayfair, LondonW1S 3NG

Nearest Tube: Green Park

Hours: Daily 11am – 7pm or by appointment

Private View: Tuesday 14 September, 6 – 9 pm

Exhibition runs 13 – 25 September 2010

PHOTOMONTH 2010 LONDON

Tom Leighton exhibits as part of Photomonth Festival 2010

www.2010.photomonth.org

BERLIN

Tom Leighton at Foundation Starke, Berlin in association with The Cynthia Corbett Gallery

Koenigsallee 30/32, 14193 Berlin-Grunewald, Germany

www.stiftungstarke.de

Transport: S - Bahnhof Halensee, Bus M19

Hours: Mon – Thurs 9h – 18h, Fri 9h – 16h

Private View: Friday 1 October, 18h – 21h

Artist and curator talk: Friday 8 October, 18h – 20h

Exhibition runs 2 October – 14 November 2010

EUROPEAN MONTH OF PHOTOGRAPHY

Tom Leighton exhibiting at Foundation Starke as part of the European Monthof Photography, which runs 15 October – 28 November 2010

Tom Leighton featured in the Young European Photography section

www.mdf-berlin.de

For further information, enquires or to RSVP please contact The Cynthia Corbett Gallery

T. +44 (0) 20 8947 6782 M. +44 (0) 7939 085 076

E. info@thecynthiacorbettgallery.com W. www.thecynthiacorbettgallery.com

GROUP PLC

Coverim

age:DetailofVenice

2,2010

‘Tom’s work with appropriation fits neatly into the Sandor Family Collection bycomplementing some of our other contemporary artists such as Richard Prince, CindySherman and KaraWalker. His work is both intelligent and beautifully crafted.’

Richard and Ellen Sandor, The Sandor Family Collection, Chicago

FOREWORD

In 2008, the French New National Museum of European and Mediterranean Civilizations(MuCEM) acquired from the Cynthia Corbett Gallery two photographs byTom Leighton,Fair 2 and The Piazza. MuCEM, opens in Marseilles in 2013, and the focus of theCollection is on daily and contemporary issues of European and Mediterranean societies.

The discovery of this young artist and the acquisition of some of his works was a greatopportunity for the museum: MuCEM has been focusing for several years on the issuesrelating to cities, collecting expressions reflecting urban sensibility.Tom Leighton’s workfits perfectly in the curatorial approach of the collection.Through visual symbolism andreconstruction, Leighton at various levels, swallows the substance of London, Berlin,Edinburgh, Barcelona, NewYork or Tokyo to create the perfect city, a kind of Utopia.

But far from presenting only fanciful views and dehumanised places, Tom Leightonmanages to offer to the viewer a range of emotions and feelings. It is not only the city- its architecture and its structure - it is also and maybe above all, what inhabits it. Theimages of Tom Leighton provide feelings of celebration, impressions of peace anddevotion, as well as a heightened sense of drama.

Of course, the aesthetics inherent in Tom Leighton's work can't be put aside. The wayhe plays with light, colours, angles and perspectives, the way he builds his compositionswith precision and delicacy all contribute to the originality of the artist. But mostimportantly, certainly from the point of view adopted by MuCEM, is that in representingcities, Leighton brings us back to what it is like to be human.

Emilie Girard

Conservator, MuCEM Collections Manager

MuCEM is dedicated to European and Mediterranean cultures, has a mixture ofdisciplines from the humanities - from art to ethnology. In 2013, MuCEM will open inMarseilles, the European Capital of Culture. MuCEM will feature collections from boththe former Museum of Arts and Popular Traditions in the Bois de Bologne and the“Europe” department of the Museum of Mankind in Paris.

INTRODUCTION

Paris,Autumn 2007, the week promises to be rich - you cannot take four steps withoutfinding contemporary art, particularly photography. In my search for young talent Ifound myself at Slick, the last room being the most daring.At the stand for The CynthiaCorbett Gallery, like Alice inWonderland I felt caught up in the futuristic photographsof Tom Leighton. Attracted by the same elements that give you vertigo, thesephotomontages are an invitation to an alternate universe in which the architecturallandmarks are familiar. It was a “coup de coeur” moment!

No doubt,Tom Leighton has proved he is truly an artist of the 21st century. His methodinitially uses digital tools to shamelessly modify, distort and colour his photomontages.But in the background is an influence from comics and videogames, allowingTom to mixadvertising with architectural monuments. Everything is accumulated and magnified bya mirror effect, making his town planning huge and limitless. He makes a mockery ofarchitects who have spent their entire careers trying to outbid the height of towersscattered across the globe. Tom has built megacities by playing with scales andproportions, which leaves people attracted to them at first but some concerned by theimpossible elements of the details. For example, there is usually a patch of dark andcloudy sky that gives the allusion that these buildings are omnipotent constructions.Theflashy buildings of Tom’s cities accentuates the (bad taste) of overdeveloped countriesand their need to shine. The result is a credible urban landscape where humans arereduced to the status of ants.

Visionary or charlatan? By 2030, there will be 5 billion people in the urban landscape …I’ll let you judge.

Frédérique Babin

Picture Editor, Le Monde 2 Magazine, Paris, France

APPROPRIATION OF SPACE

‘Space invader’

Space. The final frontier. Whether it’s micro or macrocosm, space is the ultimateadventure. Space is where we are; it’s where we go. No space - no location, no direction.Everyone has to be somewhere; and that somewhere must have a spacial context. It’show we move through time. Perceptual continuity allows us to make sense of the worldaround us. There’s comfort in knowing that, when I walk down the high street, the shopsare in the same order in which I Iast saw them.Visual permanence; remembered spatialnarrative; it’s a boon. If architectural planners moved things around overnight, well that,frankly, would be inconsiderate; and disconcerting. So, what we don’t want is thingsgetting shuffled around when we’re asleep. That’s a nightmare. Tom Leighton is a spaceinvader. He’s a scene stealer. Things just don’t stay where you last saw them.

‘Neither God nor Darwin’

There presides, in the minds of highly creative people, worlds that exist only where theyare created. Neither God nor Darwin is responsible, they are the compulsive musings ofrestless minds.These are usually cleverly constructed environments which depend uponrecognition and contrast. We know what the creator’s on about, the ‘world’ they’veinvented but something will be STRANGE, or DANGEROUS, or UNEXPECTED.There’s anaberration in the matrix. So it is with the work of Tom Leighton. It is cities, and piazzas,concrete and glass avenues of buildings; but something isn’t right. So you are forced tocompare and contrast.The penny soon drops. But even when you see how the expertisehas manipulated a visual perspective, there is yet wonder at the ‘how’ of it.

'Master Printer on peyote'

Leighton’s work is that of a master printer on peyote. That black, doom-laden sky withstrips of pure fire hovering over a menacingly claustrophobic metropolis might be ascene from Blade Runner, or Inception; a scene that has an interior sensation but anoutdoor exposure glows with the power of neon. The comforting perspectives of acityscape where planners are forced to jam so much into a shopping area you sense canonly exist where population density is in crisis. Or the unnerving symmetry of aboulevard where you have the feeling that something’s just not right.

'Someone's cheating'

Digital manipulation has not had a good press.We see things that are not really there.Someone’s cheating. Newspapers and magazines alter facial complexions or body toneto suit their print requirements, or their audience. Advertisers of cars or alcohol orhairspray entertain with implausible predictions of performance; ‘because we’re worthit’. You are more than human if you have their ‘X factor’. But it’s lies, all lies. A PeterStuyvesant cigarette never did get you on a balcony overlooking a ski resort full ofbeautiful people; it just gave you lung cancer. Nor did the wonders of Absolut vodkapull the chicks or make you one-up on the rest of the rule-observing masses. It dulledthe wits, enhanced your powers of self-deception and enabled you to make an inebriatedjerk of yourself. Persuasive imagery begs you to believe the ridiculous is not only possible,but desirable.

'The delight of creation'

Leighton’s manipulation plays with the same jigsaw, but what he portrays is worldsmanufactured for the delight of creation itself and the satisfaction of using his artistictools to an awesome level of expertise that tickles the psycho-neurology of an openmind.

Photography has long been a medium suspected of deception. Robert Capa ‘captured themoment’ a soldier in the Spanish civil war was hit by a sniper’s bullet and fell backwards,dead. No, he didn’t. Historical research now indicates that was probably a lie. And theshot was likely staged, anyway.There was ‘the moment’American troops raised the star-spangled banner after the capture of Iwo Jima. No it wasn’t. It was a later re-enactment.What you see is not always what you get. So, existentially, if you can’t trust what yousee, try Leighton’s version of apparently ‘real’ places where all your senses, especiallymemory, are persuaded that, for a moment, the recreated scene is part of your personalhistory. It’s as solid as you are. But cracks in the illusion soon appear, and you are leftfeeling a tad gullible. Photography cannot be trusted to show you what’s real; but it canreel you in to a fragment of another possible existence. A momentary particle in thequantum wave texture.

'Quizzical awakening'

When the initial cognitive dissonance of a Leighton reconstruction gives way to furrowedbrows of quizzical awakening which segues into a knowing smile, and then on into eye-darting exploration, verification and pattern seeking, therein lies the artistic tension:you know something’s up, and it’s a fascinating uncertainty, but it takes a few secondsto get your bearings. Like walking into your home where Maurits Escher and Sons haveredecorated.There’s an obvious deception afoot. It’s ironic. Leighton sometimes gives thelie to his own wink-wink world with a blatant incongruity; like the gargoyle gloating injudgement from a distant era as it overlooks a world turned on its head. But you onlysee the hissing architectural feature after your eye has swirled right-to-left across theimprobable photoscape. Memory of cold granite collides with a shimmer of artisticwizardry. The gargoyle is thinking stonily upon the appropriation of its space.

Tom Leighton travels the world and returns with a knapsack of visual booty and knits a newworld from a collage of locations.You may have visited a fragment of theVenice, or Berlinor Beijing featured, but the space invader will have stitched you up; digitally, that is.

‘Shadows of strangeness’

The works in the ‘Appropriation of Space’ exhibit are a visual feast. Leighton’s work isexciting, stimulating and casts shadows of strangeness across any preoccupied psyche.They are masterworks of imagination. Leighton’s desire is for the works to stand the testof time. They will certainly live long in my mind. I hope my exposure to his strangeplaces remains in my subconscious and recurs in sleep states where I can explore themin a more ephemeral body better equipped to explore these fantastical visions. I havebeen changed by the experience of exposure to these extraordinary images. The more Ilook, the more I see. Leighton is a bold explorer of unknown worlds. It is unlike any otherwork I can recall, and so much more than a visual experience. My assemblage points forreality have been irrevocably shifted, and the real world seems a little duller. Put me onice and preserve me for 3,000 years when human architecture may have caught up.

Joe Robinson

Freelance Journalist works primarily for The Independent, London

Venice 1 231cm x 122cm

Times Aerial 3 185cm x 93.9cm

Beijing Canopy 2 122cm x 122cm

The Temple 200cm x 61.8cm

Hoover Dam 1 200cm x 96.5cm

Venice 2

124cm x 195cm

Beijing Canopy 1 185cm x 101.1cm

Geneva 142.8cm x 122cm

The Stage

100cm x 170.5cm

The Strip 1 182.1cm x 125cm

The Strip 2 125cm x 124cm

Buildings

75cm x 280cm

FOUNDATION STARKE – STIFTUNG STARKE – BERLIN

The Starke Foundation supports four different art forms, including Painting/Sculpture,Architecture/Design, Music/Composition and Literature.

The founder, Consul Peter Starke believed "that in order to maintain the viability andinternational importance of the City of Berlin, citizens must fervently develop their owninitiatives.”As a result, Peter Starke began restoring the historic structure to its originalform, after purchasing the mansion in 1969. He saw this restoration as a counterbalanceto what he perceived as a growing trend at that time, of the destruction and loss ofsubstance of Berlin’s residential suburbs.

The Starke Foundation aims to assist artists through its ‘artist in residence’ programme.Out of the applications received, an independent jury selects the artists and art trendsin which the Foundation will sponsor in the year to come. The Starke Foundationprovides the selected group of artists with residential and working premises for a periodof 3 to 12 months. Short-term accommodation is also available for more establishedartists. Such widely spread sponsoring opportunities are designed to support thepersonal visions and styles of each artist, whilst also encouraging artistic developmentand growth. In addition, the Starke Foundation arranges numerous national andinternational contacts with museums, galleries and public institutions, as well as withrepresentatives in the fields of culture, science, economy, sports and politics. It is throughthe ‘artist in residence’ programme that talented, yet unestablished artists are able torealise their artistic visions and projects and are assisted on their path to success.

The non-profit Foundation of Art was established in December 1988 by Jörg Starke asa vision of supporting the arts, particularly emerging artists, through a Gallery whereyoung and talented artists could find a home. The Gallery and Foundation are locatedin Lions palace (Löwenpalais) in Berlin-Grunewald, and has a programme of eventstargeting collectors who are interested in discovering new talent. During the last fewyears, many of the artists supported by the Foundation and Gallery have had increasingsuccess in the international art market.

Potsdamer Platz 1 180cm x 122cm

EXHIBITIONS:

2010:Tom Leighton, Solo Exhibition, Appropriation of Space, The Cynthia Corbett Gallery,London.Tom Leighton, Solo Exhibition at Foundation Starke Berlin, The Cynthia CorbettGallery, Berlin.Art at The Top, The Cynthia Corbett Gallery, The Empire State Building, NewYork.Cultural Detritus, Pippy Houldsworth, London, courtesy of The Cynthia CorbettGallery, London.

2009:Man Photography Prize, Royal College of Art, London.Tate Patrons Studio Visit, London.Contiguous Zone "Virtual Records", YOD Gallery, Osaka, Japan.RWA Open Print Exhibition, RoyalWest of England Academy, Bristol.R.A. Summer Exhibition, Royal Academy, Piccadilly, London.Barock Plastik: Group Show, I-MYU Projects, London.

2008:Solo exhibition ‘Reifier’, The Cynthia Corbett Gallery, London.Twenty, Dazed and Confused Gallery, Old Street, London.Through the Lens, The RoyalWest of England Academy, Bristol.Aberdeen Artists, Aberdeen Art Gallery, Aberdeen.Black Light, UCLH Street Gallery,Warren St, London.

2007:UrboVido, Solo Exhibition, The Cynthia Corbett Gallery, London.Light and Colour, corbettPROJECTS,Wimbledon, London.Tech-Mac-Mayacom, Tokyo.R.A. Summer Exhibition, Royal Academy, Piccadilly, London.Ways of Seeing, The Air Gallery, London.Sea Change, Mark Jason Gallery, London.

2006:Snap, UCLH Street Gallery,Warren St, London.Syncro-tron, Aqffin Gallery, Commercial St, London.corbettPROJECTS Celebrates Frieze, Stockwell Studios, London.Art (212), Cynthia Corbett Gallery, 69th Regiment Armory, NewYork City.Zenith 6, Nomoregrey Gallery, Redchurch St, London.R.A. Summer Exhibition, Royal Academy, Piccadilly, London.Generation – The Summer Show, Royal College of Art, Kensington Gore, London.Group exhibition, Transport for London; Platform for Art, South Kensington foot tunnel.Lets Riot, Café Gallery, Southwark Park, London.

2005:Show One, Archway, London.R.A. Summer Exhibition, Royal Academy, Piccadilly, London.Solo show, Examples of Space Series, City Inn,Westminster, London.

CollectionsAT&T Corporate Collection, USAAmel & Nziad Makkawi, DubaiDennis O’Brien, DublinJoan & Allan Safir Collection, UKDevo Team Corporate Collection, ParisAndrew Dalton, LondonMark Levine, NewYorkThe V&A MuseumKunsthalleWeishaupt Collection, GermanyTiroche Collection, UK/IsraelMuCEM, FranceNicholas Topiol, President of Christian Lacroix, ParisThe Sandor Family Collection, ChicagoThe Shein Family Collection of PennsylvaniaThe UBS Art Collection, LondonSlade & Newman, Law Firm, NewYorkRupertWalsh, LondonAshley McDermott, NewYorkFelix Robyns, 12 Advisors Group, London/BrusselsJCA Group, London

AwardsJohn Purcell Purchase Prize 2006Thames & Hudson Book Prize 2006

Education2004 – 2006: Royal College of Art, MA Fine Art Printmaking2001 – 2004: University of Brighton, BA Hons Degree Fine Art Printmaking

SELECTED PUBLICATIONS

2008Ag: Reifier Number 53, Autumn 2008.SENSO: UrboVido, La Ville Recomposée, Portfolio: Tom Leighton, Issue 31,Pgs 106 – 115, June 2008.Focus Knack: Fotografie: Tom Leighton, (Belguim) 02 January 2008.

2007Corriere della Sera: Teniamoci Stretti :Tom Leighton, Io Donna, 22 December 2007.ARTINFO.COM: Red Dot and Art Now: Bang for Your Buck, Robert Ayers,07 December 2007.Le Monde 2: Les techno-villes de Tom Leighton (The techno-cites of Tom Leighton),Frédérique Babin and Michèle Champenois, Issue 196, Pgs 48 – 55, 17th November 2007.ArtReview: Mirror, Mirror: Tom Leighton, Laura Allsop, Issue 15, P.38, October 2007.

2006The Guardian, Op Art, Saturday May 13 2006.Transport for London: Platform for Art. Commissioned posters displayed at CharingCross Underground Station and Earls Court Underground Stations, 2006.'Diversion' A limited edition Box Set produced by the Royal College of Art, 2006.

GALLERY BIOGRAPHY

The Cynthia Corbett Gallery, an international contemporary art gallery representsemerging and newly established artists and is a regular exhibitor at major internationalcontemporary art fairs. The Cynthia Corbett Gallery has an annual curation programmeincluding ‘Pop Up’ exhibitions that take place throughout the year in London’s Mayfair,Kensington and the East End as well as in NewYork City. corbettPROJECTS launched in2004/2005, focuses on presenting curated projects that address contemporary criticalpractice and works with emerging curators and artists on site specific installations.Thesesolo and group exhibitions which are selected by a curatorial panel led by Director,Cynthia Corbett, present an innovative programme of events in a variety of mediaincluding photography, painting, sculpture, performance art and particular emphasis isplaced upon emerging video art. In 2009 the Gallery launched the biennial YoungMasters Art Prize sponsored by AXA UK.

In September 2010, The Cynthia Corbett Gallery will launch a new Art ConsultancyService, TitanCorbett Art Search.

TitanCorbettArt Search provides private and corporate collections and investors in artstraightforward access to the internationalArt Market. TitanCorbettArt Search advisorsresearch and locate specific works of art or recommend works based on the clientsspecifications; sourcing work from auction houses, galleries, private dealers and collectorsall the while confirming the authenticity, condition and provenance of the work. Ourteam of art advisors specialise in fields ranging from Old Master paintings to Modernand Contemporary art.

TitanCorbett Art Search can arrange art insurance policies as well as shipping andinstallation of work whilst working with the most reputable and experienced providersin the business.

For further information please see www.thecynthiacorbettgallery.com ART CONSULTANCY

GALLERY STAFF

Cynthia Valianti Corbett, Gallery DirectorBA Political Science, University of Massachusetts, Amherst.MA Law and Diplomacy, The Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy,Tufts University/Harvard UniversityDiploma Christies’s Education, London Art Course and Modern Art Studies

Celia Kinchington, Gallery ManagerBA Fine Art (Hons), Central St Martins College of Art and DesignArts Editor,Vague Paper.

Images are digital C-type prints mounted on Perspex with aluminium/Diabond backing,produced in editions of 5 & 2 artist proofs.

Images © Tom Leighton 2010.

The illustrations in this catalogue represent a selection of images to be shown in the exhibition.

All works are available for sale on receipt of this catalogue.

For further information regarding forthcoming exhibitions and art fairs please visit our website:

www.thecynthiacorbettgallery.com

THE CYNTHIA CORBETT GALLERY

15 CLAREMONT LODGE, 15 THE DOWNSLONDON SW20 8UA, UNITED KINGDOM

INFO@THECYNTHIACORBETTGALLERY.COMWWW.THECYNTHIACORBETTGALLERY.COM