Date/Time
Date(s) - 15th May 2024 - 25th Aug 2024
10:00 am - 5:00 pm

Location
Studio Voltaire

Categories

• Exhibitions - TOM & Friends

VENUE INFORMATION

RSVP FOR CURATOR TOUR

VIEWING HOURS: Wednesday–Sunday from 10a-5p
CURATOR-LED EXHIBITION TOUR: Saturday 25th May at 3p

For the first time, this major exhibition at Studio Voltaire
brings together the work of two cultural icons,
Beryl Cook and Tom of Finland.

Fleshly excesses are explored in pairings that underscore their works as playful and political. In pairing their work, including archival materials which have never been seen by the public, this presentation provides a significant refocus and reveal interconnected ideas surrounding gender, sexuality, taste and class.⁠

Beryl Cook and Tom of Finland remain profoundly influential within both popular culture and specific subcultures. This major two-person presentation brings together their work for the very first time, some of which has never been seen by the public, unveiling important and revealing connections between both practices.

Beryl Cook (1926–2008)
was a painter renowned for her exuberant style and descriptions of everyday life, whose most enduring images are of larger-than-life women carousing in nightclubs, eating in cafés or enjoying ribald hen parties, rendered in graphic and colourful forms.⁠
⁠
Tom of Finland (1920–1991)
was a master draftsman whose pioneering depictions of homosexual machismo in his images of bikers, soldiers, cowboys, sailors and labourers broadly represent Queer, Leather and muscle communities. ⁠
⁠

The exhibition further considers the means of dissemination employed by the artists during their careers. Often working outside of gallery and museum systems, they directly engaged with their audiences, gaining dedicated and enduring followings and subsequently impacting a wider popular culture. ⁠

Opening Night

The exhibition is made in partnership between the Beryl Cook Estate and Tom of Finland Foundation. Headline Exhibition Supporters: David Kordansky Gallery and The Studio Voltaire Council. Exhibition Supporters: Graham Steele and Ulysses de Santi, with additional support from The Beryl Cook / Tom of Finland Exhibition Circle, Paul Mellon Centre for Studies in British Art, Art Fund / Jonathan Ruffer Curatorial Grant and Hallett Independent.⁠

SHOP THE COLLECTION