Colin Thomson
b. London, England
STATEMENT
My painting ideas develop through drawings and watercolors. Sources include Islamic tiles, graphic design, African textiles, architectural plans, maps, cartoons, and the landscape. The work process is a simple back and forth, exploring options and consequences, contradictions and ambiguities. The results possess an animated and lively quality, full of idiosyncrasies that resist any easy identification. An overall sense of playfulness belies a more serious investigation of light and space, colour and drawing. The paintings create their own location, a meditative and natural parallel to the world I’m experiencing. Each one looks for a voice, a context for the individual parts, joining thought and action, material and idea.
EDUCATION
Yale University, New Haven, Connecticut, MFA, 1977
New York Studio School, New York, New York, 1972-1975
Skowhegan School of Art, Skowhegan, Maine, 1974
Lake Forest College, Lake Forest, Illinois, BA, 1971
SOLO EXHIBITIONS
2020
Unusual Characters, High Noon Gallery, New York, New York
2018
CAN U DIG IT? (with Jill Levine), High Noon Gallery, New York, New York
2014
Plot Lines, Outlet Gallery, Brooklyn, New York
2011
Local Colour, Wexford Arts Centre, Bunclody, Republic of Ireland
2003
100 Broadway, New York, New York
1992
Nina Freudenheim Gallery, Buffalo, New York
Projects Room, David Beitzel Gallery, New York, New York
1991
Lieberman & Saul Gallery, New York, New York
1989
Lieberman & Saul Gallery, New York, New York
1987
Nina Freudenheim Gallery, Buffalo, New York
1986
Winston Gallery, Washington, D.C.
GROUP EXHIBITIONS
2021
"How do I Measure my Gratitude," American Academy of Arts and Letters, New York, NY
2020
"Open Field," Yard Works Gallery, Brooklyn, New York
2018
"Languages of the Heart," John Molloy Gallery, New York, NY
2017
"The Painted Desert, Part 1," High Noon Gallery, New York, NY
2016
Juried Exhibition, New York Studio School, New York, NY
2015
"Ulterior Motif," The Painting Center, New York, NY
"Between a Place and Candy," 1285 Avenue of the Americas Art Gallery, New York, N
2014
Arshile Gorky and a Selection of Contemporary Drawings, Brooklyn, New York
2013
One Room Down: Colin Thomson and Edward West, Sonnenschein Gallery, Lake Forest College, Lake Forest, Illinois
drawing + painting, Newton Barry House Gallery, Bunclody, Republic of Ireland
2011
What I Know - Curated by Jason Andrew, NEW YORK CAMS, New York, New York
Jux: New Painitng by Andy Spence and Colin Thomson, Storefront Gallery, Brooklyn, New York
2008
A.M. Richard Fine Art, Brooklyn, New York
Allen Gallery, New York, NEW YORK
2006
Two Friends And So On, Andrew Kreps Gallery, New York, New York
Everywhichway, Edward Thorp Gallery, New York, New York
2002
ART DOWNTOWN, curated by Richard Marshall, New York, New York
2001
Group Show, Senior & Shopmaker, New York, New York
2000
Conversation Exhibition, Art Materials, New York, New York
1999
Summer, Art Materials, New York, New York
1998
Group Show, Vedanta Gallery, Chicago, Illinois
Project Space, Art Materials, New York, New York
1997
Santa Fe Art Fair, Art Materials, New York, New York
Gramercy Park Art Fair, Art Materials, New York, New York
Fixed/Unfixed, Art in General, New York, New York
Purely Painting, Elizabeth Harris Gallery, New York, New York
1995
Coming to Form, MMC Gallery, New York, New York
Works for a Fun House, E.S. Vandam, New York, New York
1994
Directions in American Abstraction: A New Decade, Southern Alleghenies Museum of Art, Loretto, Pa.
1993
Yale Collects Yale, Yale Art Gallery, New Haven, Ct.
1992
On Paper, Lieberman & Saul Gallery, New York, New York
1991
Nina Freudenheim Gallery, Buffalo, New York
1988
International Sculpture Center, Washington, D.C.
1987
One Penn Plaza, Penn Plaza, New York, New York
1985
Getler, Paul, Sapir Gallery, New York, New York
1984
Drawings, Barbara Toll Gallery, New York, New York
Tom Kendall Gallery, New York, New York
1983
Art on Paper, Weatherspoon Art Gallery, Greensboro, NC 1983 Cirrus Gallery, Los Angeles, California
1982
Acquisitions: Works on Paper, The Albright-Knox Art Gallery, Buffalo, New York
3:1, Tibor de Nagy Gallery, New York, New York
1981
Recent Abstraction, Bard College, Annandale on Hudson, New York
Thomson/ Pondick, Art Galaxy, New York, New York
Summer News, Droll/Kolbert Gallery, New York, New York
Drawings for the Serious Collector, Guild Hall, East Hampton, New York
1980
Two Dimensions, Guilford College, Greensboro, NC
AWARDS
National Endowment for the Arts Fellowship, 1991-1992
SELECTED COLLECTIONS
Albright-Knox Art Gallery
Richard Armstrong
Centro Culturale, Arte Contemporaneo, Mexico City Chase Manhattan Bank
Chemical Bank
Equitable Life Assurance Society
Grey Art Gallery, New York University
M & T Bank
National Madison Group
Weatherspoon Art Gallery
Wilkie, Farr & Gallagher
BIBLIOGRAPHY
“Conversation with Colin Thomson,” Jim Butler, Figure/Ground, May 2020
“One Question / One Answer with Colin Thomson,” Daniel Weiner, Romanov Grave, March 27, 2020"Chelsea is a Battlefield, Galleries Muster Groups," Roberta Smith, The New York Times, July 28, 2006 p. 27/33.
"This Way.. That Way," Mario Naves, The New York Observer, July 23, 2006.
Image, The New York Sun, July 19, 2006 p. 14.
"Ship Shape," Pilar Viladas, New York Times Magazine, July 26, 1998 pp. 38-39.
"Between Artists," A.R.T. Press, 12 Contemporary American Artists, 1996 pp. 241-249.
"Andrew Spence Interviewed by Colin Thomson," A.R.T. Press, 1992 pp. 1-46.
Justin Spring, Review, Art Forum, Summer 1991 p. 113.
Elizabeth Licata, "The Other Side of Summer," The Buffalo News, July 5, 1991 p. 27.
Richard Huntington, Review, The Buffalo News, May 6, 1988 p. 24.
Richard Huntington, Review, The Buffalo News, June 9, 1987 p. 11.
William Wilson, Review, The Los Angeles Times, June 24, 1983 Section 4, p. 10.
"Modern Works on Paper," Albright-Knox Newsletter, March 1983 p. 1.
Virginia Butera, Review, Arts Magazine, April 1982 p. 17.
Ruth Bass, Review, Art News, April/May 1982 p. 168.
Carrie Rickey, Centerfold, The Village Voice, June 23, 1980.