About Tom

Tom draws. He needs to, he wants to.

Already at an early age, some people know what they are about. Not what they want to become, but what they are. Tom draws. He has been drawing all his life. His source is life itself. His work flows from his hand. It cleans the grit from his veins. It sweeps along his body. He is at its mercy.

For his drawings, Tom uses many different formats. He always works on paper and with a diversity of drawing materials: pen, pencil, paint, ink, marker. The stream of work that pours from his hands marks the intensity with which Tom experiences and perceives life. With head, hands and heart.

Head

Tom’s work is often autobiographical. In many drawings, Tom lifts the lid off his head and shows us its contents. For ten years, he was tortured by a benign tumour in his head. This puts everything under pressure, in Tom and in his family. His drawings are silent witnesses to the situation. His recurring self-portraits form a diary against this background of an imagination plagued by illness.


Hands

When he is 13 years old, Tom has an accident; with his right hand – up till then his writing and drawing hand -, he falls through a window pane. Several main nerves are cut and from then on, Tom has to write and draw with his left hand. His right hand largely recovers, but develops its own gesture. In many drawings, Tom’s hands are present in the image as a kind of signature. They appear to represent Tom’s urge to work.


Heart

A drawing is never sketched out in advance, but is always conceived in the process. From the centre of the paper, Tom’s hand goes to work. What it draws comes straight from the heart, and that which appears can stay. This process gives the drawings their open, communicative character. The drawings are crowded by people, animals, plants and animated things. Sometimes, we only see amorphous elements, pulsating life by means of subtle shadows or swelling forms.


Resonance

Tom’s work is often presented in such a way that you cannot escape. We are confronted with a scroll drawing of 9 meters long, or with a wall filled with linked drawings. If we want to get a full view, we cannot stand still. In the same way they pour out from Tom, they overflow us. The images, the stories. Together, they resonate in the room and present us with a world in which resilience, humour, intense emotions and distant observation are equally potent.


Tom’s Background

Tom Heerschop (1972) grows up in Bussum, Venlo and Eindhoven. From 1991 to 1996, he studies at the Gerrit Rietveld Academie and subsequently, from 1997 to 1999, at the Sandberg Instituut in Amsterdam. He acquires several grants and from 2003 to 2008, he makes a tremendous start with a number of exhibitions. Tom’s work is purchased for a number of corporate collections and enjoys great private interest. Several of the exceptional textile works Tom makes in the course of these years are included in a retrospective of contemporary textile artists in the textile museum.

Due to his illness, he is forced to slow down for several years. In 2008, a benign tumour is discovered in Tom’s head. A heavy operation and a long recovery follow. After that, a new and slow trajectory starts of learning to work with the limitations of the Acquired Brain Injury (ABI) caused by the tumour. During this period, Tom’s work maintains its intensity and the handwriting of his imaginative perception is unaffected.

Recently, Tom’s work has been on show at exhibitions and fairs. Tom also works on commission of and in collaboration with companies and private parties. Tom is a member of the Dutch Society of Drawers. Through this website, a larger audience in the Netherlands and abroad can get acquainted with his work.

Watch Tom’s TedX video

Read an interview with Tom in Folks Magazine

 

TOM HEERSCHOP CV

Solo Exhibitions
2021 Drawing performance (Lisse Art Museum, NL)

2020 The Never Ending Drawing part 1, Langart Gallery (Amsterdam, NL)

2016 Not everything is so black and white, ronlangart (Amsterdam, NL)

2008 Small drawings, Metis_NL (Amsterdam, NL)

2007 Metis_NL (Amsterdam, NL)

2005 Kunstrai, Metis_NL (Amsterdam, NL)

2005 ”Prikkels: Pijn & Pret”, Gallery Erasmus, Erasmus MC (Rotterdam, NL)

2004 Metis_NL (Amsterdam, NL)

2003 PapaverStudios (Amsterdam, NL)

1997 Made in Heaven (Utrecht, NL)


Group Exhibitions

2021 Every drawing is a conversation, with Dutch Society of Drawers (De Kunstplaats Leerdam, NL)

2021 Biënnale Dutch Society of Drawers (Studio Pulchri, The Hague, NL)

2021 Dutch Design Week (Eindhoven, NL)

2021 Tekenkabinet (Amsterdam, NL)

2019 Stad in Zicht, Current drawings and pictures of Amsterdam, with ao Susanna Inglada, Ina van Zyl, Emo Verkerk City Archive Amsterdam

2017 ARTIST FIRST | paper only, with ao Kinke Kooi, Han Schuil, Marisa Rappard (Amsterdam, NL)

2017 Closer to the sun, ronlangart (Amsterdam, NL)

2017 Father, Mother, Daughther, Son, with ao Akiq AW, Silia Ka Tung, Pacific Place (Amsterdam, NL)

2017 Wanderings of the mind, ronlangart and Mette Samkalden (Amsterdam, NL)

2016 Tekenkabinet (Amsterdam, NL)

2016 Kunstroute – self portraits (Broek in Waterland, NL)

2015 VBCN 10 jaar jong, with ao Wouter van Riessen, Witteveen space (Amsterdam, NL)

2014 ronlangart, with Guglielmo Castelli, Charles Vreuls (Amsterdam, NL)

2014 Amsterdam-drawing, with ao Heske de Vries, ronlangart (Amsterdam, NL)

2012 PUBLIC/PRIVATE, Gemeente Museum (The Hague, NL)

2008 Art Amsterdam, with ao Hans v/d Ham, Metis_NL (Amsterdam, NL)

2008 Kennedy v/d Laan, with Kim Habers, Pieter Bijwaard (Amsterdam, NL)

2007 Traag with oa Pietsjanke Fokkema, Arti at Amicitae (Amsterdam, NL)

2006 GEBORDUURD, with ao Berend Strik, Michael Raedecker, Textile Museum (Tilburg, NL)

2005 Artisima with David Bade, Ronald Zuurmond, Metis_NL (Turin, IT)

2005 Art Rotterdam, with Vilma Henkelman, Norbert Schwontkowski, Nan Hoover (Rotterdam, NL)

2004 Maurits v/d Laar, with Robbie Cornelissen, Frank Jan v/d Laan (The Hague, NL)

2004 Summer of Drawings, Central Art museum Utrecht (Utrecht, NL)

1999 De Indruk, with ao Teun Hocks, Gert Jan Stam, Rini Hurkmans, Amsterdam museum (Amsterdam, NL)

1997 Ruimte Teken, with oa Gijs Assmann, Karin van Dam, Stichting Zet, Veemvloer (Amsterdam, NL)

1996 Kamper Kunstprijs, with ao Karin van Dam, Paul Nassenstein (Kampen, NL)

1996 Home is where the heart is, with ao Juul Kraijer, gallery Made in heaven (Utrecht NL)


Publications

2021 De stadstekenaars van Amsterdam – Chroniquers van het wel en wee van de stad (kM, najaar)

2020 Is onze maag toleranter dan ons hoofd? Guest at Mangiare (interview, NPO Radio 1)

2020 Podcasts Verhalen op je bord door Tom Heerschop and Mart Jeninga

2020 Spreads of drawings made by Tom Heerschop as City Artist Amsterdam (January, March, May, August, October) in Het Parool

2020 Even lang kijken als hij eraan werkte (interview, text by Maarten Moll for Het Parool)

2020 Is onze maag toleranter dan ons hoofd? Op atelierbezoek bij Tom Heerschop (text by Alex de Vries for Mr. Motley)

2020 Tom Heerschop Stadstekenaar 2020 (news item, City Archive Amsterdam)

2016 The Art of Coping with Brain Injury (interview, text by Carey Dunne for Folks Magazine – https://folks.pillpack.com/art-coping-brain-injury/

2014 Metropolis M, Amsterdam Drawing, Puur en eerlijk (article)

2013 UMC st Radboud, about Tedx Nijmegen, ideeën kunnen de wereld veranderen, text by Jannie Meussen & Marjan Wassenaar (article)

2013 Tedx Nijmegen, Youtube (video)

2008-2013 Kennedy van der Laan media reports (images by Tom Heerschop)

2008 Financieel dagblad, Art Amsterdam kunst met kartelrandjes, text by Edo Dijksterhuis (article)

2007 Revisor (cover and images by Tom Heerschop)

2007 Textiel Plus, Borduren, borduurde, geborduurd, text by Ciska Jonkers (article)

2007 Solo at Metis_NL, text by Robbert Roos (catalogus)

2006 Trouw, Borduursel ontdaan van tuttig imago, text by Liesbeth den Besten

2006 NRC NL, De ernst van borduren, text by Sandra Smets (article)

2006 Geborduurd, text by Louise Schouwenberg (catalogus)

2005 JULIET art magazine, Tom Heerschop, text by Anna D’Agostino (article)

2005 Rotterdams Dagblad, Vogels met gemene tanden, text by Sandra Smets (article)

2004 Volkskrant, Maandag gesloten, Tekenen en schilderen zijn terug, text by Marina de Vries (article)

2004 Flash Art, Pittura contaminata, dalla strada al successo, text by Luca Beatrice (article)


Collections

City Archive Amsterdam
Art Foundation AKZO Nobel
Aegon Art Collection
Art Foundation ABN AMRO
Rijnstate Art collection
Rattan Chadha Art Collection
Erasmus MC Art Collection
AVRO Art Collection
The Collection of Contemporary Drawings from the Province of Utrecht
Art foundation Kennedy Van der Laan
CBK Amsterdam / Rotterdam / Dordrecht

And other private collections in the Netherlands and abroad


Stipendia

2002 startstipendium Fonds-BKVB Amsterdam
2004 basisstipendium Fonds-BKVB Amsterdam
2008 basisstipendium Fonds-BKVB Amsterdam