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Torre

Artist: Speedy, Tom · b. 2003

Torre

A graduate from Duncan of Jordanstone College of Art and Design, Dundee, Speedy is the recipient of an RSA John Kinross Scholarship and has also been…

A graduate from Duncan of Jordanstone College of Art and Design, Dundee, Speedy is the recipient of an RSA John Kinross Scholarship and has also been shortlisted for the New Blood Emerging Artist Prize. Two of his Degree Show paintings were exhibited at Unit London during Frieze Week 2025.

Speedy’s practice explores open and ambiguous narratives, reflecting states of drifting, separation and displacement. These ideas manifest through the swirling, fragmented, and otherworldly qualities of the work. Speedy combines landscape with figurative narratives, exploring tensions where unrelated places and incidents intertwine. Motifs are drawn from fleeting memories, often snapshots taken whilst travelling.

The present drawing is based on a colour photograph, one of many which Speedy took when he was amongst the crowd who gathered in the heat to experience the Palio in Siena - a medieval city shaped by ritual and tradition, where each year the streets fill with drumbeats, flags and processions, in anticipation of a 90-second bareback horse race.

After a day waiting in the heat, Speedy found himself within touching distance of the horses as they thundered around the Piazza del Campo, surrounded by 50,000 spectators.

The young man in the drawing, dressed in contemporary sports clothing, was observed by Speedy in a back street practicing his role as a flag dancer. On the day of the Palio, the participants dress in traditional historical costume.

© The Royal Scottish Academy