CV

Michael Thompson began exhibiting in 1978 and is now widely regarded as one of Canada’s foremost Realist painters. Over the last five decades he has created a body of work which is remarkable for its clarity of vision, meticulous technique and enigmatic energy.

His work has been exhibited widely in both private and public galleries in Canada and the United States, including large survey exhibitions at the Art Gallery of Hamilton in 1983, the Kitchener-Waterloo Gallery in 1994 and at the Art Gallery of Peel in 2007.

His intensely personal approach to painting has attracted much critical attention, and his work can be found in major public, private and corporate collections throughout North America including the Musee d’art contemporain de Montreal, the Art Gallery of Ontario and the Vancouver Art Gallery.

Michael Thompson is represented by the Mira Godard Gallery, Toronto.

Selected
Solo
Exhibitions

2025 – Mira Godard Gallery, Toronto
2022 – Mira Godard Gallery, Toronto
2020 – Mira Godard Gallery, Toronto
2017 – Mira Godard Gallery, Toronto
2015 – Mira Godard Gallery, Toronto
2013 – Mira Godard Gallery, Toronto
2009 – Nicholas Metivier Gallery, Toronto
2007 – Art Gallery of Peel, Brampton
              (ten year survey exhibition)
2006 – Nicholas Metivier Gallery, Toronto
2001 – Abbozzo Gallery, Oakville
1996 – Abbozzo Gallery, Oakville
1994 – Kitchener – Waterloo Art Gallery
              (retrospective exhibition)
1990 – Drabinsky Gallery, Toronto
              (ten year survey exhibition)
1988 – Gallery Moos, New York City
1986 – Gallery Moos, Toronto
1984 – Gallery Moos, Toronto
1983 – Art Gallery of Hamilton
1982 – Gallery Moos. Toronto
1981 – Gallery Moos, Toronto
1979 – University of New Brunswick Art
              Centre
1979 – Mena’Sen Gallery, Sherbrooke
1979 – Saidye Bronfman Centre, Montreal
1978 – Gerard Gorce Fine Art, Montreal
1978 – Art Gallery of Nova Scotia
1978 – Sir George Williams Galleries, Montreal

Selected
Public
Collections

Art Gallery of Algoma
Art Gallery of Hamilton
Art Gallery of Mississauga
Art Gallery of Nova Scotia
Art Gallery of Ontario
Art Gallery of St. Thomas-Elgin
Ancaster Memorial Art Centre
Beaverbrook Art Gallery
City of North Bay
Concordia University Art Gallery
Confederation Centre Art Gallery
DeSaisset Museum, Santa Clara, CA
Edwin A. Ulrich Museum, Wichita, KS
Gallery Lambton
Grimsby Public Art Gallery
Kitchener-Waterloo Art Gallery
Museum London
McIntosh Gallery Western University
McMaster Museum of Art
Memorial University Art Gallery
Musee d’art contemporain de Montreal
New Brunswick Museum
Peel Art Gallery Museum and Archives
Plattsburgh State Art Museum, NY
Sarnia Art Gallery
The Robert McLaughlin Gallery
The Rooms Provincial Art Gallery
   of Newfoundland and Labrador
Tom Thomson Art Gallery
University of Sherbrooke Art Gallery
Vancouver Art Gallery

Selected
Corporate
Collections

Banque Nationale du Canada
Borealis Capital Corporation
Burnet, Duckworth & Palmer LLP
Cineplex Odeon Corporation
CIT
Counsel Trust Company
Davies Ward & Beck
Dorset Partners
Ernst & Young
Exco Technologies
Four Seasons Hotels & Resorts
Gluskin Sheff and Associates
Greenshields Foundation
Guaranty Trust Company
Laurentian Bank of Canada
Newcourt Credit Group
OMERS collection
Ontario College of Teachers
Scotiabank
SunLife Assurance Company of Canada
Vivian and David M. Campbell Collection

Selected Publications

Holubizky, Ihor. “Montreal”. (exhibition catalogue)
Michael Thompson: Montreal Paintings & Drawings.
Mira Godard Gallery. Toronto. 2025:  pp 4-9.
Ill. 12-45

Seidner, Eva. “Michael Thompson: Junction Girl.”
(exhibition catalogue). 20/20 Spirit Doubles.
Mira Godard Gallery. Toronto. 2020: pp 3-6. Ill. 44-45

Smart, Tom. “Michael Thompson: Drawing” (exhibition catalogue).
Michael Thompson: Drawing. Mira Godard Gallery. Toronto. 2015

Seidner, Eva. “Michael Thompson: Priest and Black Dog.” ( exhibition catalogue ).
Artist and Model. Mira Godard Gallery.
Toronto. 2015: pp 11-15. Ill. 92-93

Scott, Alix. “Master Class with Michael Thompson.”
OurtownO. Blog. 15 Dec. 2015
www.ourtowno.ca/2015/12/15master-class-with-michael-thompson-2/

Bowman, Rachel. “Girl with a Hole in Her Stocking.”
The Unpackaged Eye. Blog. 16 Feb. 2014
www.theunpackagedeye.com/girl-with-a-hole-in-her-stocking

Holubizky, Ihor. “All this Takes Time.” (exhibition catalogue).
Michael Thompson: Paintings & Drawings.
Art Gallery of Peel. Brampton.
2007: pp. 9-12

McAffee, Dionne. “Anima: Between Memory and Perception.”
( exhibition catalogue ). Michael Thompson: Paintings & Drawings.
Art Gallery of Peel. Brampton. 2007: pp. 5-8

Hujer, Elaine, “A Year in the Life of an Artist”,
The Hamilton Spectator, Hamilton, Oct. 19, 2001, pp. N4, ill.

Duval, Paul catalogue essay, “Passion over Reason”
Wilfred Laurier University Press, Waterloo, 1994

Reid, Robert, “Michael Thompson Clearly One of Canada’s Best Young
Realist Artists”
The Record, Kitchener, Nov. 10, 1994 pp. 12 – 13, ill.

Burnett, David, catalogue essay, “Michael
Thompson : A Ten Year Survey”
Drabinsky Gallery, Toronto, 1990

Moos, David, catalogue essay, “Crisis and Triumph of the Real : The Paintings of Michael Thompson”
Moos Publishing Ltd. New York City, 1988

Duval, Paul, catalogue essay, “Michael Thompson Recent Works”
Moos Publishing Ltd., Toronto, 1984

Burnett, David, and Schiff, Marilyn, “Contemporary Canadian Art”,
Hurtig Publishers Ltd., Toronto 1993, pp. 170 – 171, ill.

Inglis, Grace, “Gallery
Show Depicts Man – Nature Alienation”,
The Spectator, Hamilton, June 11, 1983

Hume, Christopher, “Is Yorkville Ready for Leather Realism ?”,
The Toronto Star, December 18, 1982, pp. 5, ill.

Webb, Marshall, “Michael Thompson”, Vanguard, February 1982, pp. 47, ill.

O’Brien, Paddy, catalogue forward, “Young Contemporaries ‘ 78”,
London Regional Art Gallery, 1978, pp. 69 – 70, ill.

“Dictionary of International Biography”,
International Biographical Centre of Cambridge, England

“The Canadian Who’s Who”,
University of Toronto Press, Toronto