Samantha Thompson

Selected Solo Exhibitions

• Artist Statement Samantha Thompson’s (née Biddle) pastel and acrylic paintings display a complex of influences from her rich and varied life. Born in Sydney in 1978 to her immigrant parents from Oregon, California, the youngest of four girls and a brother, her work has developed consistently since she began working in this media. Growing up in the Melbourne environs and spending her adolescence in the Dandenong ranges, Samantha’s art reflects her pacific inheritance with their bold colours, stylized femininity and echoes of a burlesque art deco era. Her formation as an artist began at home working alongside her parents. Samantha learned colour-matching skills while observing her mother making patchwork quilts. She also learnt to appreciate the great artists of the past from art folios left strewn around the house by her parents. Samantha was captivated by the works of Picasso, Botticelli and Degas, as well as by the stunning photography that she found in the pages of the National Geographic. Working in her father’s bridal shop reinforced her strong sense of femininity and gave her the opportunity to work along other strong female role models. Samantha also inculcated a keen commercial sense here and the desire to display her works publicly in preference to cloistering them away in gallery spaces out of the public eye. Her last major influence was living in the most ‘art deco’ city in the universe, Napier in New Zealand. From here as a maturing adult, Samantha started her thrust for ‘world domination’ as she jokingly puts it, incorporating this heavily stylistic influence into her already rich palette. She masterfully blends in her art, the style and content gathered from her lived habitat, includes a living for a time in New York and London. Samantha did not choose art as a profession, but rather it chose her. Soon after receiving a box of Schminke Pastels and paper at the tender age of sixteen, she began painting in what would become a highly recognizable and individual style with its identifiable internal consistency. Colour, gaze and movement are essential elements to her oeuvre, as, too, is the gentle dominance of the female from expressed in an unashamedly sensual manner Talking while she paints, Samantha’s creativity is inspired by the radio, a poem or a phrase she has overheard. A tactile and gentle relationship pervades both her and pieces, as she explores playfully the anatomical before teasing out the dynamic linguistic relationship between bodies always in an ever so subtle motion. This allows for a highly erotic and evocative auratic expressiveness in her compositions at times. To Samantha, art should be central to our lives, not separated from us. She is actively involved in working interactively with primary school children encouraging their creative potential. She openly celebrates this both in her championing of children’s rights to creative expressiveness and in her own attitude towards the creative process. Samantha Thompson’s works will only become more visible in the galleries, cafés and other public spaces in the future, as she prolifically continues to explore and develop further her already highly gratifying style. Education RMIT Studio Textile Design 2010 Selected publications Art Fair 12 - Guangzhou International Fair - 2007 Printed in China-pg 90 Frame Lines - Fashion the Face of Culture - Edition 6 - 2009 Verandah - Edition 23 - 2008 Art Collector Magazine - Edition 2010 Art Almanac Magazine Edition 2009 - 2011 The Age - 24th June 2011 Inside Out Magazine March/April/May 2011 Vogue Living June/July/August 2011 HORSE SAYINGS; wit & wisdom straight from the horse's mouth [Paperback] 2012 - Front page Geelong Advertiser Sept 24th and 30th September 2011 NYC ART EXPO Catalog March 2012 ANX Magazine June 2012 Aesthetic Magazine June/July 2012 Art Collector magazine - Sept to Dec 2012 Selected Solo Exhibitions Art Deco Show– Napier - New Zealand A Star is Born– Brunswick Gallery - Melbourne Postcards from Hawaii - St. Kilda - Melbourne Pastels and Pearls – Fringe Festival – Melbourne Colour Me- Territories Colours Gallery - N.T. Open Studio – Collective Melbourne – Melbourne Light and Dark– The Convent Gallery – Daylesford- Victoria Retrospective - The White Room Gallery - Brunswick - Melbourne Love and tragedy under the big top - Samantha Thompson studio - Geelong MOD - MAD Gallery - Victoria -Oct 2012 Selected Group Shows First Light Art Show– Napier – New Zealand Art Contest – London – U.K – Excellence Award Postcard Show – Linden Gallery- Melbourne She Who Inspires - Dandenong - Melbourne Gifted - Kingston Arts Centre - Melbourne Out in the South - Kingston Art Centre – Melbourne Melbourne Art Show – Exhibition Centre – Melbourne Guangzhou International Art Fair - China Chairs for Charity - Caulfield Race Course - Melbourne Out of the Blue - Palm House Gallery - Sydney RMIT Group Show – RMIT Brunswick Campus - Melbourne Black and White, Shades of Grey - Pigment Gallery - Melbourne Group Show - Month Albert - Melbourne Icon - Art at Watergarden - Geelong Art Expo - Pier 92 - New York St Josephs College Art expo - June 2012 Derinya Art and Craft exhibition - July 2012 Art Expo Brisbane - Exhibition center July 2012 City Library Gallery - Melbourne - Aug 2012 Art Expo Sydney - Sydney - Sept 2012 Parallex Art Fair - Chelsea Town Hall -London -Oct 2012 Streets are alive - Wool Museum - Geelong - Nov 2012