Multidisciplinary contemporary Australian artist Thom Roberts has opened his first solo exhibition at the National Portrait Gallery in Canberra, Australia. The show surveys a decade of the artist’s practice and presents more than 100 works of art, until Sunday 20 July 2025.
The gallery says his ‘bold portraits morph people with trains and buildings, inviting audiences to see the world through his eyes. In his work, and in his life, people and places are bestowed new identities and exist as multiple personas – Roberts himself identifies as the CountryLink Express train and the Jeddah Tower in Saudi Arabia.’
The artist says; ‘I am a bit like a photocopier. I like to make some pictures the same and some pictures disserent [different]. In my art, I like to turn a photocopier into a train in cloud heaven. I like painting portriffs [portraits], animals, drawing trains and building heights. Making art makes me feel happy and proud and terrific and great stuff. I like being an artist, until I become a very old man in the future. Thom”.’
His work is also informed by ‘crown reading’, which is the act of looking at the spiral of hair atop someone’s head. Studio A confirms ‘Thom might find anything from “holes” to millipedes, collie dogs and cows’ bodies. Synthesising this information, Thom frequently bestows people with new identities and translates them in his work.’
‘The Immersive World of Thom Roberts’ is a bold collection of paintings, installation and animation where we witness the repetition of Roberts’ favourite motifs, additional eyes, noses and ‘piano teeth’ as well as the renaming of subjects and pairing of people with the built world. It’s a window into the way the artist, who is neurodivergent, makes sense of and enjoys to see the world. It is a unique and enticing outlook.
Roberts works with Studio A on Cammeraygal Country, a supported studio that creates professional pathways for artists with lived experience of intellectual disability.
Roberts’ star has been rising over the past few years, with work in The National 2019: New Australian Art and several Archibald prize exhibitions. He has also had residencies at Carriageworks, Bundanon Trust, Canberra Glassworks and Socìetas Raffaello Sanzio in Italy.
This recognition in Canberra is another example of the critical and popular success of his practice and brings to mind a sentiment Studio A artistic director Gabrielle Mordy shared with the ABC on past Archibald achievements, ‘What is so wonderful about [artists like Thom being in the Archibald] is it changes perception and makes people realise that actually, people with intellectual disability can be performing at the highest level of cultural achievement.’
