Tom Slaughter
(1955–)
(–2014)
Tom Slaughter
1955–2014
Tom Slaughter (1955–2014) was an American painter and printmaker. He used bright colours and bold shapes to render his surroundings, creating familiar scenes and images that produce a jovial visual experience. His work in commercially produced media (posters, prints, illustrated books, etc.) places the commercial process of modern art production in conversation with traditional fine art.
Slaughter began to gain notoriety for his artwork in the 1980s after curator Henry Geldzahler helped launch his work into the public eye. Throughout the rest of his career, Slaughter’s artwork was included in many exhibitions nationally and internationally. His work has also been widely collected by various institutions such as the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York.
His work consists of brightly coloured paintings and prints. Focusing on ideas of commercialization, he has created playbills, children’s books, posters, clothing, and wallpaper alongside his illustrations and paintings. Slaughter’s art explores themes of commercial design and what separates it from fine art. He uses imagery from his hometown of New York and Long Island because of their familiarity, rendering them with bold forms and bright (often primary) colours, illustrating a possible influence from Pop Artists such as Roy Lichtenstein.
Slaughter has won numerous awards for his art, has illustrated award-winning books, and has had editions of his work collected by many institutions, including the Whitney Museum of American Art. Over his career, Slaughter held more than 30 solo exhibitions worldwide, including in Vancouver, Germany, Japan, and various cities throughout the United States.