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

• 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 Publications

• 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