Elizabeth Thompson (born 1954 in New York City) is an American painter whose works have been described by writer and art historian Bonnie Clearwater as "a call to action for the reclamation of Paradise". She has painted the Florida Everglades as "de-peopled visions of a primordial Eden." Thompson lives in Florida and New York City.
Thompson grew up in Englewood Cliffs New Jersey. Thompson received a BA from Mount Holyoke College and graduated Magna Cum Laude in 1975. Pratt Institute awarded her a BFA in 1977. She attended the Ecole des Beaux Arts in Paris from 1976-77.
Thompson began her carer by winning a competition to paint 135 oil storage tanks on the New Jersey side of the Hudson River. She then went to Paris and had her first exhibit on the Rue Seine in 1978. She has an extensive list of site specific murals that were commissioned by corporations and collectors. She also painted series that include subjects such as Paris monuments and sphinxes, swimming pools at night, African landscapes, the Everglades and impending environmental events. Bruce Helander, in the introduction to the book that accompanied her survey exhibition at the Coral Springs Museum of Art, says "Thompson is a visual storyteller whose canvases are filled with plot-twists."
Thompson has had 17 solo exhibitions and has participated in 16 group exhibitions. She co-curated an exhibition "Pools" that toured gallery and museum venues worldwide, including at a Gallery in Moscow, Russia in 1989.This exhibition was the first independent show in a nongovernment gallery in Moscow since 1917. At an exhibition of her Africa paintings, some visitors commented that the landscapes reminded them of the Everglades. After floating through a tunnel of Mangroves, she was hooked. Critic Jon Thomasson wrote of her palette, "you discover shades of green you didn't know existed".
Thompson uses both the traditional method of oil and canvas, but beginning in 2017 began experimenting with acrylics on unprimed canvas. She paints on the floor and allows the "accidents" created by pouring paint directly on the canvas dictate the eventual subject and composition of the work.
Beautiful Disasters (2016 - 2020)
Faced with a world in the grip of escalating natural disasters and man-made havoc, Thompson poses the question, “How does art, supposedly appreciated for its beauty, depict catastrophe?”
Thompson had addressed this issue before. In 2001, having just moved to downtown Manhattan, she saw the towers fall. Her response was to depict Tower Two as it would be seen reflected in the Hudson River. The reflection reads as an upside down image of the building under attack and this reflected image becomes a timeline for that day’s events.
This period coincides with a radical change in painting technique. Thompson began to paint on wet, unprimed canvas encouraging improvisation and “accidents” that determine each works composition.
Everglades (2002-2015)
Thompson was invited by the National Park Service to live in the Everglades as a participant in its Artists in Residence Program. This meant that she lived alone in the swamp, in spartan quarters, without internet, phone or television. Initially, the possibility of an encounter with alligators, snakes, scorpions and panthers was terrifying. Ultimately, she found the solitude heightened her awareness and intensified the connection to the intricate ecosystems surrounding her.
This period coincided with a great personal loss for Thompson, but nature’s ability to heal and adapt proved inspirational. The contrast between energetic growth and overt decay serves up a multitude of images that illustrate the cyclical relation between life and death. The “Nurse Log” paintings are a literal portrayal of this - decomposing fallen trees feeding a new generation of plants. “The Everglades helped me to heal, taught me to look, and made me anxious about the planet’s future.”
Africa (1996-2001)
The Africa paintings were inspired by a commission Thompson received to paint a mural of a gold mine in Zimbabwe. After completing her research, she traveled around the country. She was inspired by Lake Kariba, estuaries in Botswana and vast vistas of gold grass.
She has recounted that when she showed the paintings, some commented that the scenes looked like the Everglades.
She decided to investigate, and after floating through a tunnel of mangroves, she was hooked.
Pools (1986 - 1990)
The cloying warmth of night summer air, voyeurism, film noir, and the uninhibited freedom of weightless motion were all part of the pool narrative.
For Thompson, swimming at night in an illuminated pool was an extraordinary visual and sensual experience. Night time swims with friends inspired this series, and inspired her to reference Florida for the first time.
These paintings became part of a show that Elizabeth Thompson co-curated.The exhibition included David Hockney, Jennifer Bartlett, Robert Rauschenberg, Larry Rivers, Francesco Clemente, and Julie Heffernan, among others, and traveled to five venues. Among these was a gallery in Moscow .This was a newly privatized gallery, and this was to be their first exhibition that was independent of government participation. The show opened in the spring, weeks before the Berlin Wall was torn down. It was ironic yet fitting, that the show "Pools," the ultimate capitalist symbol, should be among the first privately mounted exhibitions in Moscow since 1917.
Paris (1980 - 1984)
While participating in an arts residency program at the Centre Georges Pompidou,Thompson would daily pass the fountain at the Chatelet. This subject became a central theme in those years, as did views of rooftops,The dome of the Paris Opera , and a fascination with the soft gray Parisian light that would soften edges and enhance space.
Beaches (1976 - 1980)
Thompson went to Paris in 1976 to study and paint. She had her first show on the Rue Seine the following year.
The paintings at that show had a distinctly American sensibility, shaped by Pop-Art, Photorealism, Edward Hopper, and wide open spaces.
Deauville’s flat atmospheric light inspired her, as did retro architecture and pebbles.
Murals
In the spring of 1975, Thompson won a competition to transform 135 oil storage tanks on the New Jersey side of the Hudson River, into an artwork.This experience led to a fearlessness when confronting the task of creating large public works.
Site-specific commissioned murals dominated her work in the 1990s.
Due diligence for these works included visiting the top tower of a bridge, a restored 17th century frigate, an African gold mine, Paseo de la Reforma in Mexico City, community playgrounds, Hong Kong department stores, and some extraordinary private homes.
Thompson responded to the challenge of each commission by painting a work that would emphasize the dynamic poetry and identity inherent in each location.