Thom Muir is an artist born in Sydney and working in its east. Since coming close to death in 2022, his work has been refocused on the spirit and power of the Australian landscape, the way it speaks to, protects and challenges us, and exploring the underlying symbolic truths behind its ebbs and flows. Muir is part of a tradition of artists learning to approach the landscape in an increasingly less European and more Australian manner, and sees the country itself as the ultimate redeemer, the salve for the stricken soul of a troubled world.
Solo exhibitions
Old Country New Sky
/ The Garden Gallery, Royal Botanical Garden Sydney,
December 7 – 18, 2024
A showing of works in oils, inks and aerosols of the Sydney coastline and its native wildlife. Sydney's coast becomes a character herself, as do her inhabitants, with the animals as spirits of exuberant life.
The East is for lovers / Comber Street Studio, Paddington, May 30 – June 3, 2024
Landscapes and figures in oils and mixed media. This work explores human impermanence within the landscape and the flow of land, sky and sea in the current of time. The jubilance of the Sydney coastline and its inhabitants as a celebration of the improbability of life in the manner and moment at which we find it.
I'd rather be underground / Goodspace Gallery, Sydney, 14 September, 2022
A multi-media exhibition commissioned by Fanclub Sydney of large scale graphic artwork, sculpture and paintings inspired by the street life and culture of Sydney city and its inhabitants in the new millennium.
Group shows
How do ants? / Good space gallery, November, 2023 | Group show
5 pieces displayed: paintings and drawings, mixed media
Setting out to challenge the notion that the mundanity of life is ordinary and therefore
uninteresting, 'How Do Ants?' takes a light-hearted stab at the often overlooked events
of everyday life.
2023 9×5 Landscape Prize / Waverley Woollahra Art School, December 2023 | Art prize finalist
Following in the footsteps of Australian impressionists Streeton, Roberts, Condor and McCubbin, this exhibition was intended to be a spontaneous reaction to the landscape in small format oils.
Commissions
Harbour city under golden light / Large-scale oil painting for OCBC boardroom, 2025
1100 × 2900 mm, oil on plywood, framed in Australian hardwood
Inside outside universe (string theory) / Large-scale rope sculpture for Accenture's SXSW exhibition, 2025
2000 × 3000 × 6000 mm, rope and mixed media
Organism rugs / A series of organic hand-loomed woolen rugs for Microsoft's Reinvention Day, 2025
4000 × 3000 mm, indigo ink on wool
150 mm diameter, indigo ink on wool, four pieces
Education
Bachelor of Screen Arts, AFTRS (scholarship), 2017
Foundation Diploma, AFTRS, 2013