18/05/2026
Tom Waits is an enigmatic songwriting legend who embodies rock’s ultimate outsider.
He stopped touring in 1999 and last released an album in 2011. He’s won two Grammys (for Mule Variations and Bone Machine) and has been inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. Beyond music he has acted in numerous low key rolls in films such as Bram Stoker’s Dracula and the Robert Altman directed Short Cuts. Married to creative partner Kathleen Brennan in 1980, he fiercely guards his personal life and rejects Hollywoods glare.
His work is often viewed as unclassifiable - stories disguised as song lyrics. Despite little public appearance in recent times he’s a devoted following who value his strange, gravelly voice and theatrical persona with “beautiful melodies telling terrible things”.
Gallery1903 strives to be a home for outsider creatives (in the vein of Tom Waits) and new voices filled with the strangely beautiful - an intimate exhibition space far removed from the glitz and glamour of the mainstream art scene. Linger with friends in for a meal, then descend into the gallery to be surprised by some amazing art.
We don’t aim to be part of the mainstream. Instead we focus on the slightly odd, the unusual, the unsettling and the dark - creations that tell stories. We show creatives who fit our aesthetic and works we love so much we’d hang them in our own homes. The emphasis is on the fringes and the outsiders who speak to the soul.
The current show, “Thank You for the Music” continues to attract interest, featuring Diane Victor, Gordon Froud and others paying tribute to artists not necessarily in the mainstream stream, like Nick Cave and Tom Waits. The show is anchored by a beautiful drawing of Waits by Lauren Slachter .
The show runs until mid June - Come and have a look.
