ABOUT
MEET THE ARTIST
Lydia Thompson is a mixed media artist and received her Bachelor of Fine Arts degree from The Ohio State University and her Master of Fine Arts degree from the New York College of Ceramics at Alfred University. Her awards include a Fulbright Hayes grant to conduct research on traditional architecture in Nigeria, a Windgate Distinguished Fellow for Innovation in Craft. She was an artist-in-resident at the Medalta Ceramic Center in Medicine Hat, Alberta, Canada, the Guldagergaard International Ceramic Research Center in Denmark and at the Hambidge Center for the Creative Arts & Sciences. Her work has been included in galleries, art centers, and museums such as the Mindy Solomon Gallery, the Society for Contemporary Crafts, the Baltimore Clayworks, the Ohr O’Keefe Museum, the Kentucky Museum of Art and Craft, James A. Michener Art Museum, the Crocker Art Museum, the Mint Museum, and the Northern Clay Center. She has completed public commissions for businesses and her work is in private and public collections in the US, New Zealand, Austria, Switzerland, and Italy. She has conducted workshops for youths and adults, given public lectures and served as a juror and curator for national and regional exhibitions. Currently she resides and maintains her studio in Charlotte, NC and is a Professor of Ceramics in the Department of Art & Art History at UNC Charlotte.
ARTIST STATEMENT
My current research investigates the ideas of migration and residual ancestral memories that examine space and place that reference human existence. Through continuous mobility and the physical process of reduction made by nature, human beings create pathways that explore physical space that may produce visual silence, evoke the imagination, offer notions of commodities and value, and illustrate a sense of desperation that provides insights to various cultural practices and traditions. I also see my images as reminders of the past and current lessons that we need to learn about the persistence and preservation of one’s own culture.
ARTIST STATEMENT
My current research investigates the ideas of migration and residual ancestral memories that examine space and place that reference human existence. Through continuous mobility and the physical process of reduction made by nature, human beings create pathways that explore physical space that may produce visual silence, evoke the imagination, offer notions of commodities and value, and illustrate a sense of desperation that provides insights to various cultural practices and traditions. I also see my images as reminders of the past and current lessons that we need to learn about the persistence and preservation of one’s own culture.