Docks Deconstructed

Tom Glover

March 28 - May 11, 2024

About The Show

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Tom Glover

After studying with John Laurent, John Hatch, Sigmund Abeles and Conley Harris at the University of New Hampshire, Glover continued critiques with Laurent for a couple of decades.

A dock can be one of those rare places where human endeavor freely mingles with aspiration, where work-a-day grit is a harbinger of endless possibilities. Docks are bustling loci of industry, fisherman coming and going, longshoreman moving cargo, ferries loading and unloading passengers. They can smell of the sea, of fish, of engines.

While the working waterfront has its charming place in the popular imagination, docks evoke so much more. They conjure hope: immigrants arriving at the docks of Manhattan to start new lives after arduous journeys. They are scenes of joy: families and loved ones reunited. And docks are also the location of longing and tragedy. Gatsby stares at the green light at the end of Daisy’s dock, yearning and unaware that his imagined future had already receded past his grasp. Tristan, mortally wounded, waits for Isolde’s ship with tragedy in their immediate future. Upon docks, we unfold the full tapestry of our imagination.

But what does one see if one examines docks without the people? They are a fascinating study in form, line, color, and energy -- a perfect subject matter for detailed study by a visual artist. And that is exactly what Tom Glover has done with this exhibition, Docks Deconstructed. Ranging from representational to almost purely abstract, this body of work sheds new light on docks -- not as hubs of human activity but as compelling visual compositions.