Jonathan Thompson's exhibition will inaugurate inter@Thavibu, Thavibu Gallery's space for international artists. 

This is Thompson's first solo exhibition in Bangkok, and will take place on 30 April - 11 June, 2011. 

The White Girls address consumerism and the irresistible allure of commodity culture. They share the spirit of Warhol’s screen printed celebrities, and are likewise influenced by commercial advertising and pop style simplification and employ a limited palette in order to present enticing artifice as glamour. They celebrate the triumph of advertising in creating value, channeling desire and crafting culture.

Thomson uses the figure to explore fundamental ideas about beauty. Beauty is relative to different times and different cultures and all too often the delight it gives us is tempered by the fact that it too, like laughter and music, the perfume of flowers and the bloom of youth, will fade. All things must pass, but in our hearts and minds, that which we find beautiful is a possession for all eternity.

Eroticism is the most direct and immediate way of captivating the senses and it is through the senses that we understand the aesthetics of beauty, rather than through either the rational and conceptual knowledge of science and philosophy or the structures and systems of ethics and morality. More than any other subject, the nude signifies “Art”. It is not just one subject among many, but is the central subject. The nude is a canon of perfection, an expression of universal and eternal values. 

Thomson’s nude figures are based on a reductive approach to line, simplicity of design and clarity of expression. His sparse, clean, fluid lines give rise to lyrical, romantic inscriptions that address basic human emotions.

Jonathan Thomson is an artist, art historian, critic and curator. He has held various senior positions in arts administration in Australia and Hong Kong including Deputy Director (Strategic Development) and Head of Secretariat at the Australia Council for the Arts and Deputy Secretary General of the Hong Kong Arts Development Council. He writes extensively on all aspects of global contemporary art and is Regional Correspondent for Asian Art News and World Sculpture News. Since December 2008 he has served as Art Consultant to Louis Vuitton Asia Pacific and as Curator of the Louis Vuitton Galleries in Hong Kong, Macau and Taipei. White Girls is his 3rd solo exhibition following successful solo shows in Hong Kong in 2010 and 2011. His work is represented in private and corporate collection in Australia, England, France, Hong Kong and USA.

The White Girls exhibition is presented by Thomson Fine Art and is hosted by inter@Thavibu in the Silom Galleria. A full colour 54 page catalogue with essays by Jonathan Thomson and Ian Findlay Brown is also available.