Christopher Thompson | Parallel Lives

About

Christopher Thompson, an English artist, was born in Grimsby in 1969 and studied at the Royal Academy. Since graduating he has exhibited extensively at home and abroad, his work featuring in many private and public collections, including the National Portrait Gallery in London.

In these new works the artist continues to explore his signature theme of the ‘urban portrait’. He paints solitary subjects in an austere architectural setting, using his technically accomplished handling of light and shade to lend drama and emotional intensity to the scene. There is a sense that all these characters exist in their own worlds, apart and discrete. The majority of the new paintings have an added component: the compositions derive from established masters, most notably Hopper, Vermeer and Algernon Newton. Thompson substitutes contemporary characters for those of the originals.