A Magical Correspondence of Science Fiction, Religious Text, and the Tradition of Abstract Painting

Overview

Roland Thompson’s drawings and paintings are based on classic minimalism, where the form is defined through the accumulation of thousands of small marks. He believes that the original idea doesn’t matter much, but how it develops into a different, more complex system is important. Historically, the objective of abstract art has been to discover a real art that is not based on illusion. Some artists have stripped away superfluous elements to the point that art became an object to be admired for the way it looks, and not for the way it represents. Other abstract artists have sought to objectify an emotional or spiritual reality by using art elements to directly communicate an intangible idea or feeling. Still others have used abstraction as a form of escapism, in order to create a new alternate reality to the inhumanity of society’s increasing reliance on technology. Thompson’s recent paintings and drawings explore all of these tendencies in abstract art, but combine the real with the poetic and fantastic associations. The result is a beautiful and witty synthesis of seemingly irreconcilable attitudes.

The Artist

Thompson was born in Ogden, Utah, in 1970. He received a BFA from Brigham Young University in 1998, and an MFA from Virginia Commonwealth University in 2001. His work has been exhibited in New York, Virginia, Arizona, and Utah. Some of his recent works have also been recently published in the exhibition catalogue New American Paintings. He is represented by Starch Design in Richmond, Virginia.