Tom Fairs was born in London, England (1925) and lived in Hampstead, England. He studied at the Hornsey School of Art from 1948 to 1950 and at the Royal College of Art from 1950 to 1954, where he studied stained glass design and subsequently received glass commissions for the next twenty years. He taught fine art and stage design from 1967 to 1987 at the Central School of Art and Design (now Central Saint Martin’s) in London, England. From 1963 to his death in 2007, the artist shared his life with the novelist Elisabeth Russell Taylor. Their attic flat is within close proximity to Hampstead Heath where, in his years of retirement from teaching, Fairs sketched daily. He passed away in 2007. His work has been on view in solo exhibitions internationally, such as Tom Fairs (2012) at The Modern Institute in Glasglow, Scotland and Tom Fairs: Homage to Bonnard (2008) at The Mercer Art Gallery in Harrogate, Yorkshire and The New Grafton Gallery in London, England. He received solo exhibitions in New York City at Kerry Schuss (2011-2015). Fairs has been included in numerous group exhibitions, such as Drawn Together Again (2019) at Flag Art Foundation, New York, NY; Gaze (2018) at Van Doren Waxter, New York, NY; and Outside (2016) at Karma, Amagansett, NY, curated by Matthew Higgs. His work has been reviewed and featured in publications such as Artforum, Bomb, New York Magazine, The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, and elsewhere.
