Who is Tom Burtonwood?

Wired Instructor, Tom Burtonwood

I teach WIRED on Monday afternoons 12:30 – 2:00pm and 2:15pm – 3.45pm and Friday afternoons from 12:30pm – 2:00pm. This is the second time I have taught the SAIC Wired course.

Born in Manchester. I support Bolton Wanderers, then City. Attended Shelley High School, Huddersfield. I studied first at Dewsbury College (Batley School of Art) and then went on to earn BA Hons at Loughborough College of Art and Design (now Loughborough University.) Graduated with a First in Painting / Art History. After L’boro I briefly returned to North of England. An artist residence at Hospitalfield House, Arbroath, led to an application to attend Southern Illinois University Carbondale. I graduated from SIUC with an MFA in Painting and moved up to Chicagoland with Holly Holmes. We live in the burbs.

Like most artists my day to day work is a hybrid of teaching, arts administration and art installation. From 2005 – March 2009 i served as Operations Director for Bridge Art Fair producing shows in Berlin, Chicago, London, Miami and New York. In addition to working for Bridge i have taught at Columbia College Chicago, The School of The Art Institute of Chicago and Evanston Art Center.

My art practice for the last seven years or so has been in collaboration with Holly. Our joint body of work revolves around consumerism and warfare. We make sculptures and installations that address the commercial pros and cons of materielism and the supply / demand in this field. Our website has more info and images of recent projects www.burtonwoodandholmes.com

Holly and I also collaborate on an art exhibition project space, What It Is ( www.wot-it-is.com ) in Oak Park, IL. Currently i am working on a new body of work, drawings, constructions, video and small scale sculptures that i hope to start posting by the end of the summer on my web site www.tomburtonwood.com