Cheyney Thompson
At the core of Cheyney Thompson’s practice is an analytical approach and commitment to the examination of painting—its production, distribution and presentation in contemporary conditions. He often applies strict sets of principles to the creation of his work, using rules-based systems as generative tools to minimise the subjectivity of creative decisions. The methods for investigation have included such varied structures as mathematical theories, complex algorithms, economic formulas or numerical colour systems. The result is a dialogue between the formal qualities of the work and the consciousness of its production.
Cheyney Thompson was born in 1975 in Baton Rouge, Louisiana and currently lives and works in New York. He received a BFA from the School of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, in 1997. His work was recently included in ‘Low Form. Imaginaries and Visions in the Age of Artificial Intelligence’ at MAXXI, Rome, Italy (2019) and in ‘Programmed: Rules, Codes, and Choreographies in Art, 1965–2018’ at the Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, NY, USA (2019). Thompson’s work was the subject of an exhibition with Sam Lewitt at The Brno House of Arts, Brno, Czechia (2017). Other solo exhibitions include ‘Cheyney Thompson The Completed Reference: Pedestals and Drunken Walks’, at Kunstverein Braunschweig, Germany (2012); and ‘Cheyney Thompson: metric, pedestal, landlord, cabengo, recit’, at MIT List Visual Arts Center, Cambridge, MA, USA (2012). Select group exhibitions include ‘Invisible Adversaries: Marieluise Hessel Collection’, Hessel Museum of Art, Bard College, Annandale-on-Hudson, NY, USA (2016); ‘Money, Good and Evil. A Visual History of Economics’, Staatliche Kunsthalle, Baden-Baden, Baden-Baden, Germany (2016); ‘A Slow Succession with Many Interruptions’, San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, San Francisco, CA, USA (2016); ’Materials and Money and Crisis’, Museum Moderner Kunst, Vienna, Austria (2013); and the 2008 Whitney Biennial, Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, NY, USA (2008), among others. Thompson’s work is held in the permanent collections of the Centre Pompidou, Paris, France; Museum of Modern Art, New York, NY, USA; San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, San Francisco, CA, USA; Walker Art Center, Minneapolis, MN, USA; and the Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, NY, USA.
Cheyney Thompson
Installation view of ‘Between Pixel and Pigment. Hybrid Painting in Post-Digital Times’
Kunsthalle Bielefeld, Germany, 7 July - 10 November 2024
![Chronochrome [4, interval]](https://lisson-art.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/attachment/image/body/37602/THOM230013_001.jpg)
Cheyney Thompson
Chronochrome [4, interval]
2023
Acrylic on canvas
Installed: 52 x 52 x 7/8 in
Cheyney Thompson
StochasticProcessPainting(6)(9801 steps)=FunctionalPath(f)(49 meters): interval
2023
Acrylic on canvas
Installed: 48 1/8 x 48 1/8 x 7/8 in
Cheyney Thompson
‘Cheyney Thompson: Intervals’
Lisson Gallery, Beijing, 18 November 2023 – 13 April 2024
![Bellona through subtracted light [1-6]](https://lisson-art.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/attachment/image/body/24851/THOM_INSTA_2022_003.jpg)
Cheyney Thompson
Bellona through subtracted light [1-6]
2022
Oil and acrylic on linen
272.7 x 206.7 cm
107 3/8 x 81 3/8 in
Installation image of ‘Cheyney Thompson: Several Bellonas’, 10 November – 14 January 2022, Lisson Gallery, New York, NY, USA
![Bellona through subtracted light [2]](https://lisson-art.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/attachment/image/body/24985/THOM220017_001.jpg)
Cheyney Thompson
Bellona through subtracted light [2]
2022
Oil and acrylic on linen
272.7 x 206.7 cm
107 3/8 x 81 3/8 in
Cheyney Thompson
489-1215 (1879-1900)
2022
Series of 990 drawings; graphite on paper, UV printed mat board
Installation image of ‘Cheyney Thompson: Several Bellonas’, 10 November – 14 January 2022, Lisson Gallery, New York, NY, USA
Cheyney Thompson
'Cheyney Thompson: Several Bellonas'
10 November – 14 January 2022, Lisson Gallery, New York, NY, USA
![3013/1139 [433 curves][1895-98]](https://lisson-art.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/attachment/image/body/24987/THOM220021_001.jpg)
Cheyney Thompson
3013/1139 [433 curves][1895-98]
2022
Graphite on paper mounted to book cloth
73.3 x 50.8 x 0.3 cm
28 7/8 x 20 x 1/8 in
Cheyney Thompson
‘Intervals and Displacements’
11 November – 6 January 2022, Andrew Kreps Gallery, New York, NY, USA
![Displacement [1]](https://lisson-art.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/attachment/image/body/24980/THOM190002_004.jpg)
Cheyney Thompson
Displacement [1]
2019
Oil and acrylic on linen
156.5 x 118.4 cm
61 5/8 x 46 5/8 in
![Displacement [32028, 6, 12]](https://lisson-art.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/attachment/image/body/24981/THOM200003_001.jpg)
Cheyney Thompson
Displacement [32028, 6, 12]
2020
Oil and acrylic on linen
206.7 x 156.5 cm
81 3/8 x 61 5/8 in
Cheyney Thompson
122.37Chromium-54.92Cobalt-51.96 Copper-45.33Silicon-32.43Iron-14.94 Tin-14.94Tungstan-11.31Aluminum-9.36
2015
Metal powders in acrylic binder on linen
207 x 157.5 cm
81 1/2 x 62 in
Cheyney Thompson
Pedestals, Bias-cut, /Robert Macaire/, Chronochromes,
25 September – 24 October 2009, Galerie Buchholz, Berlin, Germany
![G20.96-RP20.96-b2.62-pb2.62-yr2.62-y2.62 (52ml) [5A]](https://lisson-art.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/attachment/image/body/24676/THOM190001_006.jpg)
Cheyney Thompson
G20.96-RP20.96-b2.62-pb2.62-yr2.62-y2.62 (52ml) [5A]
2019
Acrylic on linen
103.5 x 78.4 cm
40 3/4 x 30 7/8 in
Cheyney Thompson
Somewhere Some Pictures Sometimes
7 September – 21 October 2017, Andrew Kreps Gallery, New York, NY, USA
Cheyney Thompson
Grid. Gradient. Drunken Walks,
19 April – 12 March 2017, The Brno House of Arts, Brno, Czechia
Exhibitions
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Patternmaker's Maze
20 July – 12 October 2024
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Cheyney Thompson: Intervals
18 November 2023 – 13 April 2024
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Selected Works in Seoul
2 September – 10 September 2023
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Cheyney Thompson: Several Bellonas
10 November 2022 – 13 January 2023
