Biography
Kelly Thompson has lived and worked in California, Australia, New Zealand and the UK. This nomadic life has informed her research as an artist involved in contemporary fibres/textiles as an expanded field in art discourses. Her art practice explores visual touch, signs and traces of order, mapping, surface and structure relationships in objects and installations, utilizing digital and analog weave technologies. Thompson has exhibited work internationally in exhibitions, festivals and biennials. Her work explores the intersections of age-old and 21st technologies and producing new cloth artwork embedded with narratives of location and identity, travel, language, and translation.
Kelly Thompson is an Associate Professor in Fibers and Material Practices, and Graduate Program Director, Department of Studio Arts at Concordia University, Montreal, Canada. She is an active member of the Textiles and Materiality Research Cluster of Milieux Institute for Art, Culture and Technology at Concordia University. Previously she was Head of the BA Textile program, at Goldsmiths, University of London for four years, and before that taught at the Otago School of Art, New Zealand. Thompson has a BFA from the California College of Arts and Crafts 1985, and a MA (Visual Arts)1994, from the Canberra School of Art, Australian National University.
Material codes: ephemeral threads, is a recent project that questions the digital realm, big data and its fallibility, aiming to make the ephemeral visible and tactile in jacquard woven textiles. Work from this series includes Climate Data Labyrinth and Fluid Data (physical and digital versions), shown in Montreal, Bath Spa, UK. Other works have been exhibited in Iceland, Australia, New Zealand, and the USA. This project culminated in a curated exhibition and symposium The Material Turn, in 2018.
Thompson's work is in the collection of National Gallery of Australia, Powerhouse Museum of Applied Arts and Science, Sydney, Cruthers Collection, Perth & Sydney Australia, New Zealand Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade, Jakarta Office, Indonesia, Otago University, Otago Polytechnic, Nelson Polytechnic, Whangarei City Council & Kevin Tonks Landscape Architects, Auckland, New Zealand. Private collections in New Zealand, Australia, California, Norway, England, and USA.
Kelly Thompson has lived and worked in California, Australia, New Zealand and the UK. This nomadic life has informed her research as an artist involved in contemporary fibres/textiles as an expanded field in art discourses. Her art practice explores visual touch, signs and traces of order, mapping, surface and structure relationships in objects and installations, utilizing digital and analog weave technologies. Thompson has exhibited work internationally in exhibitions, festivals and biennials. Her work explores the intersections of age-old and 21st technologies and producing new cloth artwork embedded with narratives of location and identity, travel, language, and translation.
Kelly Thompson is an Associate Professor in Fibers and Material Practices, and Graduate Program Director, Department of Studio Arts at Concordia University, Montreal, Canada. She is an active member of the Textiles and Materiality Research Cluster of Milieux Institute for Art, Culture and Technology at Concordia University. Previously she was Head of the BA Textile program, at Goldsmiths, University of London for four years, and before that taught at the Otago School of Art, New Zealand. Thompson has a BFA from the California College of Arts and Crafts 1985, and a MA (Visual Arts)1994, from the Canberra School of Art, Australian National University.
Material codes: ephemeral threads, is a recent project that questions the digital realm, big data and its fallibility, aiming to make the ephemeral visible and tactile in jacquard woven textiles. Work from this series includes Climate Data Labyrinth and Fluid Data (physical and digital versions), shown in Montreal, Bath Spa, UK. Other works have been exhibited in Iceland, Australia, New Zealand, and the USA. This project culminated in a curated exhibition and symposium The Material Turn, in 2018.
Thompson's work is in the collection of National Gallery of Australia, Powerhouse Museum of Applied Arts and Science, Sydney, Cruthers Collection, Perth & Sydney Australia, New Zealand Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade, Jakarta Office, Indonesia, Otago University, Otago Polytechnic, Nelson Polytechnic, Whangarei City Council & Kevin Tonks Landscape Architects, Auckland, New Zealand. Private collections in New Zealand, Australia, California, Norway, England, and USA.
