christian thompson artwork

christian thompson

artist in residence 2015

Dr Christian Thompson is an Australian - born London based internationally acclaimed artist whose work explores issues of identity, cultural hybridity and history. His formal training is sculpture, however his multidisciplinary practice spans more than a decade engages mediums such as photography, video, sculpture, performance and sound.

He is an Inaugural Charlie Perkins Scholar and one of the first Aboriginal Australians to be accepted into the University of Oxford in its 900 year history, where he did his Doctorate of Philosophy (Fine Art) at Trinity College.

Thompson came to prominence in Australia in the late nineties and his work is primarily focused on the performative exploration of identity. In his performances and photographic works he inhabits a range a personas achieved through hand-crafted costumes and carefully orchestrated poses and backdrops. Thompson’s artistic practice has been informed by his absorption of a wide range of cultures as a young artist growing up in an urban environment in the 1980s and 1990s. Interweaving traditional or vintage props with elements of pop culture and garish touches from the 1980s, he is known for his subtle references to land and culture of the Bidjara people.

His work provocatively explores a myriad of themes from the sensorial replication of childhood memories of the Australian desert hinterland, the critical parody and deconstruction of the identity of the artist and the mythology of landscape.

Thompson has exhibited widely both nationally and internationally, having been included in exhibitions such as un-Disclosed, 2nd National Indigenous Triennial, National Gallery of Australia, Canberra (2012), and Cultural Warriors, the inaugural National Indigenous Art Triennial, National Gallery of Australia, Canberra (touring) .

Thompson's work is held in major public and private collections including: Museum of Contemporary Art (Sydney ), National Gallery of Australia (Canberra) Art Gallery of NSW (Sydney ), National Gallery of Victoria (Melbourne), Queensland Art Gallery (Brisbane).

Christian Thompson is represented through Gallery Gabrielle Pizzi (Melbourne), Michael Reid Gallery (Sydney), and Future Perfect Gallery (Singapore).