Tom Leighton “Appropiation of Space” Opens at Cynthia Corbett Gallery

LONDON.- The photographs of Tom Leighton engage with urban landscape. By digitally altering photographs Leighton tries to deconstruct and retranslate the cities that we inhabit. Creating fictional landscapes allows him to ignore the constraints of possibility and logic. However as much as he pulls apart and constructs his unique urban views, he aims to create a believable view of the world, which verges on the surreal but remains rooted in reality. Leighton finds that city architecture & infrastructure makes the urban environment a „seasonless‟ place. “My photographs are akin to a memory of a place – a distorted, reconstituted reality – by creating areas of ambiguity, I play with the brain‟s capacity to ignore or falsely correct what doesn‟t initially make sense. Frequently I try to leave the viewer of my work floating from an „all seeing‟ elevated dreamlike perspective – they become disconnected/disassociated and are left reflecting a vision of urban splendour which simultaneously conflicts with the evident paranoia inherent in contemporary society.” So in constructing his urban views he uses a number of indicators that set the tone of the photograph. For example bare trees and night settings indicate winter. In his work Leighton finds it important to incorporate some kind of organic movement to contrast against the symmetrical & restrictive architecture, and the artificial and seemingly everlasting city lights.

Tom Leighton was born in London in 1981. Following his BA in printmaking from the University of Brighton in 2004, he gained an MA from the Royal College of Art in 2006. Throughout his practice, Leighton has worked with urban landscapes. In 2006 he won the John Purcell Paper Prize and the Thames & Hudson Book Prize. He has exhibited in London, Paris, Tokyo and the United States. Collections include The Sandor Family Collection, Chicago, Kunsthalle Weishaupt Collection, Ulm Germany, MuCEM (French National Museum of European and Mediterranean civilizations), Tiroche Collection, UK/Israel, The Shein Family Collection of Pennsylvania, Felix Robyns, 12 Advisors Group, London/Brussels, Nicholas Topiol, President of Christian Lacroix, Paris, The UBS Art Collection, JCA Group, London & The Victoria and Albert Museum, London. Leighton lives and works in London and is represented by The Cynthia Corbett Gallery, London.