Christopher Thompson British, Contemporary

Christopher Thompson is an award-winning British artist, born in Grimsby in 1969 and now based in London. After graduating from Norwich School of Art, Thompson went on to complete his postgraduate studies at the Royal Academy Schools in 1997. Since then, he has exhibited widely both in the United Kingdom and internationally through numerous solo and group exhibitions. His work is held in collections around the world, most notably in the National Portrait Gallery, London. With a keen sensitivity to light, shadow, line and colour, Thompson turns his attention to the architecture of everyday life. His distinctive paintings focus on houses, rendered with a painterly realism that is both familiar and quietly enigmatic. These buildings are approached as portraits — each one imbued with its own character, personality and subtle narrative. Drawn from real locations that have captured the artist’s imagination, the houses are often repositioned into unexpected or imagined settings, where their titles offer gentle clues to the unseen lives within. A small cat frequently appears within each composition, moving from house to house — sometimes active, more often watchful — a silent witness threading the works together.