Andrew Tomkins studied at Julian Ashton Art School from 1986 to 1990 after gaining his qualification as a builder and surveyor and obtaining his builder’s licence in 1985.

His appreciation of the natural world and the environment, combined with a longstanding passion for art, has led to a distinguished exhibiting career and recognition in numerous prizes. He is a two-time winner of the Gallipoli Art Prize (2023, 2025), and has also received the Inaugural Burwood Art Prize (2017), the Henry Bucks of Mosman Commendation Prize (2015), as well as earlier awards including the Fairfield Art Prize, Drummoyne Municipal Art Society Drawing Prize, RAS NSW Drawing Prize, and the Macquarie Towns Art Prize.

Tomkins has been a finalist in a wide range of major awards, including the Wynne Prize, Dobell Drawing Prize, Gallipoli Art Prize, Fisher’s Ghost Art Award, Mosman Art Prize, NSW Parliament Plein Air Painting Prize, Korea-Australia Arts Foundation Art Prize, Waverley Art Prize, Gosford Art Prize, Fleurieu Peninsula Art Prize and Wollongong Art Prize.

He has exhibited extensively in Australia and internationally, including at regional galleries, art fairs, and major institutions such as Sydney Contemporary, Art Central Hong Kong, and the Beijing International Biennale at the National Art Museum of China, where his work is also held in the collection. In 2020, he was awarded an artist residency and exhibition at the Ningbo Museum of Art.