This section contains a selection of articles and exhibition reviews. Selected writings to be added.

Metro, 5th December 2003

"It's easy to assume that the work of Tom Hackney is photography but, instead, the artist is devoted to photo-realist oil paintings, constructed withy near inhuman detail to achieve meticulous visions of reality. Having studied in Manchester, this new show marks a creative homecoming for the Somerset-born artist, who is on something of a high following his winning of the BOC Emerging Artist Award earlier this year. Competition judge Peter Blake declared that: 'We believe his painting is exceptional now - and shows great promise for the future', and Suspended Belief offers evidence of this remarkable talent, consisting of a series of landscape paintings set around cinematic locations. The views are mostly anonymous in appearance, being drawn from scenes in films, like Planet of the Apes or Jaws, which have strictly personal relevance to the artist himself. However, film buffs should nevertheless be able to entertain themselves identifying the films from the snatches of dialogue that constitute the paintings' titles. Hackney makes implicit questions of the way we look at images - the fact that these scenes are painted rather that photographed changes our response, but why? The layers of perception involved in a painted copy of a photograph of a real scene will keep art philosophers engaged for hours, while the rest of us can simply admire the technique."

Rob Haynes