Deborah Thompson: Between

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Deborah Thompson, "Between," 2019

mixed media on paper, 30"x 36"

Between

Selected and new works on paper by Deborah Thompson.

Opening Reception: November 15th, 2019 from 6-9pm

Between represents a selection of Deborah Thompson’s recent work and is part of a larger body of paintings, sculptures and drawings. This exhibition at the Tilted Brick highlights new works on paper. Throughout the series, Thompson employs facial expressions and sometimes body gestures to explore a range of emotions around anxiety. The work evolves out of a highly personal dialogue following a line of existential questioning prompted by this era of outward instability and on going injustice. Thompson says that  her work is not didactic in a political way rather hopes it is universal in its social breath of understanding. Provocative and sometimes unsettling, the daily activity of creating work requires the artist to assume an emotional kinship with the work. In particular, the artist feels that the works on paper with their use of black and white media such as ink, charcoal, graphite and cut paper drop the seductiveness of colour exposing a world of anxiety unplugged. 

Thompson says that her practice is one of searching for an elusive experience of being that lies between the mundane and transcendent. In the same way, in her use of visual language, she is seeking to hold space for the abstract and representational. Reflecting on influences for this work, the artist recalls the years she spent documenting prehistoric “rock art” panels of the Colorado Plateau. As well as, a rare viewing many decades ago, of paleolithic drawings of the Altamira Cave in Northern Spain. Formative experiences which have remained with her throughout her practice.