Tom de Freston has had four solo shows at Breese Little Gallery (London), and achieved significant critical success. He is currently artist-in-residence at Medicine Unboxed, a Wellcome Trust-funded organisation that explores the links between art, the humanities and medicine. Tom has been awarded various residencies, these included the Levy Plumb Visual Arts residency at Christ's College, Cambridge (2008-2009), a Leverhulme-funded residency at Cambridge University to make paintings inspired by Milton's Paradise Lost (2010-11) and the Hatley Residency at C4RD (2011). In 2012 he represented the UK at the World Event Young Artists as part of the cultural Olympiad. His work is well represented in public and private collections, and has been reviewed or featured in the Financial Times, The Daily Telegraph, Dazed Digital, I.D. Elephant Magazine described him as 'a central part of the New School of London'. In September 2014 Bridgedoor Press published The Charnel House, a poetic graphic novel by Tom de Freston in collaboration with thirty-seven leading contemporary poets. In October 2014 Routledge published Figuring Out Figurative Art, which included essays on Tom's work by Professor Lydia Goehr and Sam Rose.
A play based on Tom's work, written by Toby Parker Rees, debuted at the Yard Theatre in Spring 2014. Past publications include House of the Deaf Man, a collaboration between Tom and poet Andrea Porter, in response to Goya's time in La Quinta del Sordo. In 2010-11, Tom was commissioned by the British Shakespeare Association to make a body of paintings in response to Shakepeare's Tragedies. The accompanying publication included essays by Dr. Abigail Rokison and Sir Trevor Nunn. The paintings toured as a solo exhibition, including shows at Pallant House Gallery, The Globe Theatre and the Tsubouchi Memorial Theatre Museum, Tokyo.
On Easter Sunday 2011 Christ's College Chapel installed two new altarpiece paintings by Tom, to mark the 500th anniversary of the chapel's consecration. Green Pebble published a book to accompany the unveiling, which included essays on the paintings by Sir Nicholas Serota and the Hon. Rowan Williams.