‘in a part of your mind, i am you’ is now open at Ngununggula. More images and details to follow but my biggest thanks to everyone who worked tirelessly to make this show happen — Megan, Milena and all the staff at Ngununggula particularly Sam, Jack, Brendan, Shelle, David, Nathan + Dara on this big install; Nicholas and team at AGNSW helping to facilitate collection loans; Alex and Andrew in the studio + Jessica Maurer for these wonderful photos, thank you @roslynoxley9@stationgalleryaustralia@amesyavuz and those loaning works from their collections. 💙💙@ngununggula
Images: Tom Polo ‘in a part of your mind, i am you’, 2025, installation view Ngununggula, including Ugo Rondinone’s clockwork for oracles, 2010. Collection of the Art Gallery of New South Wales, donated through the Australian Government’s Cultural Gifts Program by the John Kaldor Family Collection 2016. @ugorondinone0
Congratulations to @TomPolo whose portrait of Roslyn Oxley is a finalist in the 2026 #ArchibaldPrize at the @ArtGalleryOfNSW .
Tom Polo’s subject is Sydney gallerist Roslyn Oxley, who has run one of Australia’s most influential contemporary art spaces, championing artists for over 40 years.
‘I’ve worked with Roslyn since 2018, and over that time I’ve come to understand her particular way of looking,’ says Polo.
‘The title of the painting is borrowed from our first exhibition together in 2019. It reflects Roslyn’s sustained, exacting attention: perceptive, measured and quietly decisive.
‘Roslyn’s hair is iconic. In the painting it becomes almost like a halo, holding her in place and making her immediately recognisable. She stands against a dark, shifting ground, like a beacon – watchful and ever-present. There’s a directness to her expression that many people will recognise, but I wanted that to sit alongside a quieter sense of warmth and trust that I’ve experienced through our relationship.
‘In making this work, I thought a lot about legacy and time; the inevitability of change, and the importance of what remains. For me, it’s her endurance that sits at the centre of the portrait.’
To request a catalogue of available works by Tom Polo, email [email protected]
Image: #TomPolo, 'I still thought you were looking', synthetic polymer on polycotton, 200 x 160.5 x 3.5 cm.
Please join us today at the ‘Living Thing’ by Tom Polo at the Mobilia Design Lounge at Booth E11 Future Objekt, an immersive design lounge that reimagines the social logic of the ‘piazza’ within a contemporary art and design context.
Anchored by artworks curated by Polo alongside a selection of MOBILIA’s pieces, the installation expands his exploration of human connection into the built environment, where emotional resonance and spatial awareness shape experience.
Working between abstraction and figuration, Polo’s paintings blur the boundaries between self and other, masking and revealing the complexities of our inner worlds through observation, social encounters and personal histories. Drawing from close observation, Polo’s practice traces the emotional and performative relationships between people across social, theatrical and psychological space.
Melbourne Convention and Exhibition Centre Booth E11 Future Objekt. Tom Polos work can also be found at STATION Booth H8
To request our full Melbourne Art Fair Catalogue, please follow the link in bio.
New works for this year’s edition of @melbourneartfair with @stationgalleryaustralia at Booth H8
Image: Tom Polo, ‘body double, secret spill’, 2026, acrylic and Flashe on polycotton, 162 × 122 cm
Tomorrow’s the last day of ‘bodycave’ at @stationgalleryaustralia in Naarm. I got to see the show again irl this week and it was reaffirming to see the outcomes and processes that have carried so much of me — my personal grief and determination — the last few months, still felt real and connected. I’ll never not champion the connection between feeling and gesture that we as artists are lucky to work with and share.
Thanks again to all that have supported me and the production of this body of work 💙💙
Image: Tom Polo, how do i reach you (departing in the dark), 2025, acrylic and oil on canvas, 213.0 x 198.0 cm. Artwork images: Jessica Maurer. Install: Simon Strong
