Thom Roberts is an artist who has to transform the world around him into his own terms to make sense of it. He then proceeds to paint this transformed world. On encountering people, trains, buildings or cities, he has to give each of them his own nickname and then endows them with peculiar conceptual and visual attributes.

For example, Shame Simpson is a high-profile, Sydney-based, art-loving lawyer who is on the board of many cultural institutions. In Roberts’ A Portriff of Adam, Simpson is not only given a new name but also is provided with a second set of eyes and glasses, as well as another pair of ears. It is a curiously transformed portrait but sufficiently recognisable to be described as a likeness. Roberts, over his short career, has been a finalist in the Archibald Portrait Prize four times, and portraiture is an important element in his prolific oeuvre.

Thom Roberts, A Portriff of Adam (Shane Simpson) 2021. Courtesy Thom Roberts and Studio A. © Thom Roberts. Courtesy of Studio A.

The exhibition at the National Portrait Gallery is quite a seductive affair. The artist’s boldly simplified artistic language finds many parallels in contemporary art practice, such as the work of Vincent Namatjira. However, what is unique, or at least very unusual in Roberts’ work, is the consistent intervention of additional eyes and ears, hands replacing noses, and letters and piano keyboards replacing mouths.

Roberts creates an idiosyncratic fantasy world of personal invention, one that is bizarre and wondrous, dripping with colour and interspersed with bold architectural inventions, sometimes enhanced through animation.

It is a world of complete eccentric authenticity, and it is this sense of authenticity that I find completely captivating. It is like one great riotous festival where you suspend disbelief as you enter a world seen through the eyes of Thom Roberts. It is a world laced with humour and a huge visual curiosity.

The 49-year-old Thom Roberts (not his real name, but the one he exhibits under) is autistic and has an intellectual disability.

He has been painting since he was six, but professionally since 2016, when his art practice was supported by a Sydney social enterprise, Studio A, and its artistic director and CEO Gabrielle Mordy, whom Roberts calls ‘Kylie Panther’ and identifies with a Melbourne tram. In his professional practice, he has attracted many honours, including a spot in the 2019 iteration of The National at the Carriageworks.

Thom Roberts, Dinkie is Thom’s Friend 2024. Collection of Freudenberg Home and Cleaning Solutions Australia. © Thom Roberts. Courtesy of Studio A.

Almost a century ago, Jean Dubuffet championed the concept of ‘art brut’ or ‘raw art’; in other words, art made by artists without academic training, some with intellectual disabilities. It is a concept that can be extended to the work of this artist. Roberts has been unable to access the art school system, but with the help of Studio A, has nevertheless managed to enter the art world.

Thom Roberts, In the future, there might be new tall buildings built by Bert (Farhad Haidari) 2023. Private collection © Thom Roberts. Courtesy of Studio A. Photo: Art Gallery of New South Wales, Jenni Carter.

A naïve and direct vision should not be interpreted as a lack of technical sophistication. Roberts’ Dinkie is Thom’s Friend, 2024, which was a finalist in last year’s Sulman Art Prize at the Art Gallery of NSW, is an almost life-size portrait of the cleaning lady at Studio A and is quite a remarkable painting for its pictorial complexity.

Roberts explains, “This is a portriff [portrait] of the lady who cleans the bathrooms at Studio A. Her real name is Subita but I call her Dinkie Duck because I like to rename people and places … She is my friend. I wanted to paint Dinkie, and Woody [Studio A principal artist Emma Johnston] helped me ask her. I wanted to do a big painting of Dinkie. As big as real life.”

Roberts has transformed the world for us through the power of his unique imagination. It is a world that each of us can embrace and find in it a piece of magic.

As you enter the exhibition, you encounter a statement from the artist that reads like a manifesto through which to understand his motivation: “I am a bit like a photocopier. I like to make some pictures the same and some pictures disserent [different].

“In my art, I like to turn a photocopier into a train in cloud heaven. I like painting portriffs [portraits], animals, drawing trains and building heights. Making art makes me feel happy and proud and terrific and great stuff. I like being an artist, until I become a very old man in the future. Thom”.

The Immersive World of Thom Roberts is exhibiting at the National Portrait Gallery of Australia until 20 July.