Christopher Thompson - Albemarle Gallery London

Christopher Thompson

Christopher Thompson was born in Grimsby in 1969 and trained at The Royal Academy Schools. Thompson’s paintings originate as much from the artists own ideas and thoughts as they are drawn from glimpses of his own life and the world around him. Working from finely observed portrait studies, Thompson manipulates these ‘truths’ with imagined memories appropriated from elsewhere, weaving an enigmatic fiction that takes on a new reality on canvas. Captured in his delicate painterly technique and an often subdued palette, Thompson’s compositions portray the human drama inherent in gestures, glances and emotions. In combining his imagined sources with observational accuracy, his work traverses the divide between the real and the fictitious – one step removed from reality, yet entirely authentic. His work expresses a fascination with togetherness and individuality, with what is spoken and unspoken. Sometimes his individuals appear lonely and detached - lost in their own solipsistic thoughts - in others his figures are relational and interacting, expressive and aware of one another. In each composition, Thompson draws the viewer into the world he has created; our dialogue with his characters is as much a part of the unfolding story as the canvas itself.

cv / exhibition history / awards

Selected Exhibitions

2010	Korean International Art Fair 2010 Albemarle Gallery, London Charity Group Exhibition Eleanor Ettinger Gallery, New York Self Portraits
2009	Albemarle Gallery, London Group Exhibition Mall Galleries, London Royal Society of Portrait Painters
2008	Albemarle Gallery, London Solo Exhibition Albemarle Gallery, London Summer Show
2007	Aqua, Galleria d’Arte Contemporanea, Modena Albemarle Gallery, London Winter Show Form London, Olympia, London Albemarle Gallery, London Summer Show
2006	Albemarle Gallery, London 10th Anniversary Exhibition Albemarle Gallery, London Solo Exhibition Human Art, Catania Arte Fiera
2005	Forni Gallery, Bologna Nuova Figurazione Britannica Albemarle Gallery, London What is Realism Eleanor Ettinger Gallery, New York British Figurative Art Holman Fenwick & Willan, London Summer in the City Christies, London Garrick Milne Portrait Prize
2004	London Art Fair, Business Design Centre, London Albemarle Gallery, London Solo Exhibition Albemarle Gallery, London Summer Show
2003	Albemarle Gallery, London New Year New Work Albemarle Gallery, London Summer Show Garrick Milne Portrait Prize, Christies, London Art London 2003
2002	Mall Galleries, London Royal Society of Portrait Painters National Portrait Gallery, London BP Portrait Award Albemarle Gallery, London Young Contemporaries The New Collection, DFN Gallery, New York
2001	National Portrait Gallery, London BP Portrait Award

Collections

National Portrait Gallery, London