Tom Samek (11 March 1950 – October 2021)[1][2] was a Czech artist who lived and worked in Australia.[3] He was a painter, stage designer and printmaker.[1]
Tom Samek was born in Prague, Czech Republic.[1] He moved to Germany and Switzerland in 1969, then Austria the following year and Australia in 1971.[3] In 1972 he studied printmaking with Eric Smodic in Austria for a year, then returned to Australia the following year.[3] He settled in Tasmania.[4]
In 1997, he painted a mural in the foyer of the School of Engineering at the University of Tasmania.[5]
Samek's largest, and perhaps finest,[6] work is Flawed History of Tasmanian Wine, a floor mural in a gallery above the tasting room of the Meadowbank Estate winery and restaurant in Tasmania.[6] The floor is painted, carved and etched in Samek's "unique style",[6] and integrated with his friend Graeme Phillips' comic and nonsense poetry.[6] The work was finished in December 2005, half of the $160,000 cost being met by the Federal Government.[6]
In 2009, he returned to the University of Tasmania School of Engineering to create a mosaic mural, featuring names of notable engineers, and staff and students. It was unveiled during the 50th anniversary celebration of the school.[7]
Samek made prints, including etchings, which "revel in the indulgences of food and drink."[8] He adopted a whimsical view of Australian customs and language, at one time concentrating on faces and wine glasses, and in 2006 focusing on parrots as subject matter.[9]
In the latter part of his life, he was based in Hobart, Tasmania.[10] He died in October 2021 after a long battle with motor neurone disease.[2][11]
Samek's work is represented in the Australian National Gallery, South Australian Art Gallery, Queen Victoria Museum and Art Gallery, Auckland City Gallery, Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery, Australia Council, and Artbank.[10]