Background
Tom Samek was born in Prague, Czechoslovakian Republic.
Tom Samek was born in Prague, Czechoslovakian Republic.
In 1972 he studied printmaking with Eric Smodic in Austria for a year, then returned to Australia the following year.
He is a painter, stage designer and printmaker. He moved to Germany and Switzerland in 1969, then Austria the following year and Australia in 1971. He settled in Tasmania.
In 1997, he painted a mural in the foyer of the School of Engineering at the University of Tasmania.
Samek"s largest, and perhaps finest, 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. The work was finished in December 2005, half of the $160,000 cost being met by the Federal Government.
In 2009, he returned to the University of Tasmania School of Englineering to create a mosaic mural, featuring names of notable engineers, and staff and students. lieutenant was unveiled during the 50th anniversary celebration of the school.
Samek makes prints, including etchings, which "revel in the indulgences of food and drink." He adopts 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.
He lives and works in Hobart, Tasmania.