TOM STANLEY

Tom Stanley was born in Fort Hood, Texas and grew up in Concord, N.C. before graduating with a B.A. in Art from Sacred Heart College in 1972. After serving two years alternative service in lieu of induction, he took on positions in New York City working in the design industry. He then continued his artistic education, receiving an M.A. in applied art history and an M.F.A. in painting from the University of South Carolina in 1980.

As a practicing artist, Stanley began explorations into visual art and music as early as 1960 with painted impressions of familiar musical forms. His work relies upon personal memory, an interest in contemporary folk art imagery, and hands-on experience as points of artistic departure. He often works within an established series, and much of his technique is based in common graphic strategies such as mechanical drawing, silhouette, and sgraffito. He then implements these devices to create imagery completely unique to his own vision.

Stanley has served on the faculties of Arkansas College (now Lyon College) in Batesville, Ark.; Barry University in Miami, Fla.; and Livingstone College in Salisbury, N.C. In 1985 he returned to the Carolinas to become director of the Waterworks Visual Arts Center in Salisbury, NC and in 1990 he became the first director of Winthrop University’s Galleries in Rock Hill, SC. In addition to continuing his fine art practice, Stanley held a position as chair of the Department of Fine Arts at Winthrop University from 2007-2017.

In recent years, Tom Stanley’s artwork has been exhibited at Barbara Archer Gallery in Atlanta, Ga., the Southeastern Center for Contemporary Art in Winston-Salem, N.C., Gallery twenty-four in Berlin, and Musée de la Halle Saint Pierre in Paris. In 2004, his “Floating” series was exhibited at the New Orleans Center for Creative Arts before traveling to the South Carolina State Museum’s Triennial Exhibition in 2005. In 2017, The Halsey Institute of Contemporary Art at The College of Charleston hosted the mid-career retrospective for the artist, Tom Stanley, Scratching the Surface. In 2018, he served as an artist in residency at the Gibbes Museum of Art, Charleston, SC, and he is currently participating in an eight month residency at the McColl Center for Art + Innovation in Charlotte, NC where he also serves as a visiting curator.

tom-stanley

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16″ x 20″ acrylic on canvas $2500

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TOM STANLEY BIOGRAPHY

Tom Stanley is a visual artist currently living in Durham. After earning an MA in Applied Art History and an MFA in Painting from the University of South Carolina in 1980, he served on the faculties of Arkansas College (now Lyon College) in Batesville, Arkansas, and Barry University in Miami, Florida. He was director of the Waterworks Visual Arts Center in Salisbury, North Carolina, from 1985 until 1990, when he became the first full-time director of Winthrop University Galleries in Rock Hill, South Carolina. After the gallery, he served for ten years as chair of Winthrop’s Department of Fine Arts until his retirement in 2017.

Drawing mechanically and painting in series have been consistent in Tom’s approach. His 2004 Floating series was exhibited at the New Orleans Center for Creative Arts. He has exhibited internationally at Gallery Twenty-four, Berlin; La Galerie du Marché, Lausanne; Musée de la Halle Saint Pierre, Paris; and the University of Porto’s Casa- Museu Abel Salazar, Portugal. His exhibition Tom Stanley: Scratching the Surface was featured at the Halsey Institute of Contemporary Art in the spring of 2017 in Charleston, South Carolina.

Since 2007 he has worked on several public art projects, many with his Winthrop colleague Shaun Cassidy. Stanley is the recipient of the Governor’s Award in the Arts (formerly the Verner). In spring 2018, he completed a six-week residency as a visiting artist at the Gibbes Museum of Art in Charleston and worked with Casa-Museu Abel Salazar, University of Porto in Portugal, on a temporary site project for their chapel, Layers: On-Site Installation. In April 2019, he completed an 8-month residency at the McColl Center in Charlotte, where he also served as a visiting curator. In February 2020, Stanley was a fellow at the Virginia Center for the Creative Arts in Amherst.

In 2023 he completed an ASC public art commission with Hidden Valley resident Unique Patton. The purpose of the project was to plan, designed and install two bus shelters on Tom Hunter Road in the Hidden Valley Community as part of a City of Charlotte Infrastructure Improvement Project. In 2020 he co-curated the exhibition True Likeness with Lia Newman. The project opened at Davidson College’s Van Every Smith Galleries in fall 2020 and traveled to four other institutions in the U.S.

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