Arnold Thompson, a young Memphis artist, rarely stays within typical boundaries. His subjects include the great jazz and blues artists of his youth, whose music and images are indelible parts of our lives. After graduating from Xavier University in New Orleans with a degree in graphic design, Thompson immediately entered the world of fine arts, working with one of the famous New Orleans French Quarter galleries. In 1984, he returned to Memphis, Tennessee, a city which throughout American history and to this day is a wellspring of original American blues.
In Memphis, Thompson taught commerical art and since the mid-1980's has worked as a commercial designer but, several years ago, realized that he needed something more. He began painting, first with the subject matter he knew and loved best - the jazz and blues greats of the American South, and next his personal abstract interpretations, a mixture of form, color, texture, and space which stretches boundaries and pushes the limits of modern art. As Thompson puts it - "the concept is a holistic one, which moves across all ethnic and gender lines, possessing a universal appeal."
Thompson's work has received international attention, and was recently featured on NBC's Today Show in a piece which also featured art icon Peter Max, during Artexpo New York, the largest international fine art exposition in the world.
In his ongoing jazz and blues series, Thompson strives to capture the intrinsic and essential qualities of musicians through the use of an entire composition. His trademark is a swirling, high-energy "negative space" background, combined with sometimes dramatic, sometimes subtle use of color, line, relief, and three-dimensional illusions. It invites the viewer to participate, take a closer look, and get lost in the tension, nuance, and multiple layers of depth and space he has created. The end result is an image which communicates the subject's life and music.
You can take a walking tour through the Jazz & Blues Wing or the Contemporary Art Wing, or you can take a shortcut to see the work of all the artists in the gallery. These paintings are available for purchase from The Electric Gallery. Ask us for a shipping quote, or gove us your other comments on our presentation.
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