Tom Block's
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Painting - Acrylic
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Price Range: $400 - $3,000
Bio
Tom Block says he "fell into painting" as a young adult.
Born in the District in 1963, he grew up in Bethesda in a family in which his grandfather was Orthodox, his father became bar mitzvah at the Conservative Adas Israel Congregation and he was confirmed at the Reform Washington Hebrew Congregation. Block, who says he is joining Adat Shalom Reconstructionist Congregation, attended Hebrew school at WHC.
He graduated from Georgetown Day School in the District and then received a B.A. in English from Vassar College.
After trying his hand at travel writing and finding it wanting ("It wasn't creative enough") and working as a waiter, a profession he found more "honest" than travel writing, Block decided to take an art photography course at the age of 26.
"That opened up the whole world of art," Block says, convincing him "that I had been a painter, but didn't know it."
When he painted his first piece, Tom Block had no idea that art would become a forum for his activism. He didn't intend for his painting of a grapefruit resting on a pedestal with a spotlight shining on it to seem edgy. But his teacher looked at his work and saw subtext, telling him it was a fascinating rendition of a grapefruit being interrogated.
Although Block wasn't aware of the subtext he had created at the time, he looks back on his professor's comment now as a sort of prognostication. Block evolved into a political activist artist, using visual expression to promote intercultural understanding and world peace as well as awareness of philosophical, spiritual and human rights issues.
He loves painting because it gives him the opportunity of "relating to someone in a direct, emotional fashion."
His work has been exhibited in New York; Chicago; Florence and Venice, Italy; Madrid, Spain; Lisbon, Portugal; and other cities.
Tom Block, of Silver Spring, MD, is an artist with an activist bent whose current series of paintings are influenced by the legends of the Baal Shem Tov, founder of Hasidism, whose passionate mysticism swept through 18th century Europe. Works from this series have been shown in Florence and Venice, Italy; New York City; Washington D.C.; Chicago; Detroit; Baltimore, and many other smaller cities in both the United States and Europe.
Block also is writing a book tracing Sufi mysticism's influence on the development of Jewish mysticism from the 10th to the 19th centuries. He has had five articles published, which are excerpts from the book, but has yet to look for a publisher.
Style
Block uses his art to propose positive responses to problems he sees in the world. In Block’s works, you see the ecstasy of color and emotion, the wonder of movement through G-d’s world and some of the mystery that the Baal Shem Tov imparted in his legends. Although not attempts to realistically render specific aspects of his teaching stories, the paintings capture the intention and passion of the great sage’s instruction using the vibrant patois of a contemporary visual language
Artist Statement
I am an interdisciplinary artist who uses painting, writing and scholarly exploration to explore spiritual issues in the context of the world in which we live. While I firmly believe that at our best, humankind can approach a selfless devotion to the Universal Force, the reality of it all is a bit messier. As such, my art investigates not only our highest shared visions, but also the sometimes-ugly reality of our world run amuck.
I have undertaken a series of projects as part of this ongoing inquiry. I painted three series of works based in the highest impulses of the Abrahamic faiths – one each based in the Sufi masters of Islam, the Baal Shem Tov of Judaism and Meister Eckhart of Christianity. After this uplifting experience, I chose to explore the way in which people of such advanced spirituality fared when coming in contact with the real world – which led to my Human Rights Painting Project, in conjunction with Amnesty International. This series of portraits highlighted human rights advocates (most of them torture-survivors) from around the world and the vital work of Amnesty International. I have also undertaken a project entitled Shalom/Salaam, based in a virtually unknown tale of mystical intermingling between Jewish and Muslim mystics over nearly a thousand years of human history. It is my hope to insert this message of peace into the current conflagration in the Middle East. Lastly, I am working on a series of paintings entitled Response to Machiavelli, which looks at the small-minded, self-serving state of our current political system and uses the philosophy of great social thinkers from the past few millennia to propose another, more caring way.
Additionally, I include well-known public figures in my projects to help raise the profile of these important issues. I have worked with Chinese Democracy activist Wei Jingsheng, Executive Director of Amnesty International Bill Schulz and internationally recognized Sufi historian Dr. S. H. Nasr, among others.
Awards
2005 Sugarman Foundation Grant, CA. Received monetary grant for Shalom/Salaam Project.
2005 Frederick County Commission, MD. Resolution in support of Human Rights Painting Project
2005 Artist Adorned Transit Stops, Tempe, AZ. Commissioned to install public art in bus stops.
2004 Dudley Review, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA. Cover art and two interior images.
2004 Puffin Foundation Grant, Teaneck NJ (for the Shalom/Salaam Project)
Exhibitions
SELECTED ONE-PERSON EXHIBITIONS
2005 HNTB Gallery, Washington D.C.
Phillips Museum, Franklin & Marshall College, Lancaster, PA
Beneficial-Hodson Library, Hood College, Frederick, MD
Tessera Gallery, Winston-Salem, NC
Saville Gallery, Allegany Arts Council, Cumberland, MD
2004 HNTB Gallery, Washington D.C.
Fine Gallery, Bethesda, MD
Gelman Library, George Washington University, Washington D.C.
Artspace, Richmond, VA
Montpelier Cultural Arts Center, Laurel, MD
2003 Eckles Gallery, George Washington University, Washington D.C.
Pearl Conard Gallery, Ohio State University, Mansfield, OH
Ratner Museum, Bethesda, MD
A.R.C. Gallery, Chicago, IL
Selected Group Exhibitions:
2005 Ratner Museum, Bethesda, MD
Pyramid Atlantic Arts Center, Silver Spring, MD
Gavilan College Art Gallery, Gilroy, CA
Howard County Arts Center, Ellicott City, MD
Main Line Art Center, Haverford, PA
Tessera Gallery, Winston-Salem, NC
2004 Phillips Museum, Franklin & Marshall College, Lancaster, PA
Olin Fine Arts Center, Washington & Jefferson College, Washington, PA
Athens Institute of Contemporary Art, Athens, GA
Mid-Atlantic New Painting 2004, Ridderhof-Martin Gallery, Fredericksburg, VA
2003 Fine Gallery, Bethesda, MD
ARTery, Washington D.C.
Corporate Collections
Georgetown University Hospital, Washington D.C.
HNTB Architecture, Washington D.C.
Summit Art School, Gaithersburg, MD
Anchor Appraisal Company, Boston, MA
Public Collections
Portland Community College, Portland, OR
George Washington University, Washington D.C.
Museum Collections
Contemporary Art Museum, Montecatini, Italy
Mr. Jumane N’Namdi, Gallery Director, N’Namdi Gallery, Chicago, IL
Ms. Cathy Zeljak, Curator, Eckles Gallery, George Washington University, Washington D.C.
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