Tom Prinsell (b. 1991) has been making paintings since receiving his BFA from Mason Gross School of the Arts at Rutgers University in 2013. Tom’s paintings are narrative driven scenes about self-reflection, desire, fear and growing up in New Jersey.
Tom’s work has been shown throughout New York, New Jersey, Los Angeles, Austin and London including galleries such as 550 Gallery, Paradice Palase, MANA Contemporary, UTA Artist Space, Martha’s Contemporary and the Spring Break Art Show. Tom has been an Artist-in-Residence at PLOP, Vermont Studio Center and Trestle Art Space. He currently lives and works in and New York City.
"My paintings explore the relationship between our inner monologue and outer aesthetic. I am fascinated by the affinity for archaic subject matter in video games and contemporary pop culture and use these formal means of depiction to weave a visual tale of wondrous psychosis. Spending the greater part of this past year in relative isolation, I became increasingly interested in creating characters based on the different internal projections of oneself and what it would look like if these separate projections were to interact with each other. In my latest series, two characters take center stage to embody the Ego and the Alter Ego - the rational thinker and the manic Demigod. These paintings represent, in many ways, a limbo state of consciousness. They are inspired by my daily mortal anxieties and retold in other-worldly tableaux. With neo-surrealist landscapes, diorama-like compositions, and art historical references, these paintings aim to disrupt current aesthetic and subject trends in favor of fantastical projections of an internal monologue."