Tom de Freston

artist

Tom de Freston (* 1983) is a British artist based in Oxford. In his work he combines painting, film, text, and performance to create dark, multilayered visual worlds in which he often draws inspiration from literature and mythology and explores themes of human vulnerability and loss. He studied fine art at Leeds Metropolitan University and art history at the University of Cambridge. His book Wreck: A Story of Art and Survival (2022) is a personal text about creativity, trauma, and the possibilities of art which was inspired by Théodore Géricault’s painting The Raft of the Medusa. He frequently collaborates with his wife, the writer Kiran Millwood Hargrave, and together they have published, among other works, the picture books Julia and the Shark (2021), which was named Waterstones Children’s Gift of the Year and was shortlisted for the Waterstones Book of the Year, and Leila and the Blue Fox (2022), winner of the Wainwright Prize for Children’s Writing. Tom de Freston’s work is currently featured in the exhibition Argus & Medusa at DOX.