‘Pleasure is a very interesting political space to reside in…’ Milly Thompson, 2021
My Body Temperature is Feeling Good presents the work of British artist Milly Thompson (1964–2022). Part of the renowned artist group BANK, Milly went on to establish a solo practice as a prolific painter, sculptor, video artist and writer. This exhibition presents works from 2010 onwards, in which she irreverently lampooned the hegemonic force of luxury consumer culture on women and celebrated the middle-aged female body for its libidinal power. Across the exhibition a strongly rendered sense of the female gaze is established, privileging female desire, glamour, and a purposeful slipperiness of artistic voice and persona that constantly questions the stakes of making art.
The exhibition captures the particular blend of irony and sincerity that characterised Thompson’s most recent work, which explored romantic novels and sun-drenched summer holidays as spaces for escapism and sensual self-reinvention. Her paintings are informed by sources as diverse as Francis Picabia, Shirley Valentine, Japanese woodcuts, and emojis, establishing a languid and luxurious visual language with which to capture cellulite, sunbathing, and lobster with sorbet. Works such as Hunter Watching the Beach (2016) and La Vergne in the Afternoon (2017) encapsulate her irreverent reclamation of the exoticised and eroticised female nude, exploring the art historical trope for its contemporary resonance, inserting middle aged bodies into the frame in heat-drenched colours. Later paintings, such as Temple Creation (2020) and Scuba Sauvage Azure Bleu (2021) assert new and confident visual languages and painterly techniques, incorporating ink washes, experimental canvases, lyrical lines, and codes of emojis to express the frustrations and triumphs of the female body finding agency amongst the restrictive distortions of mediated beauty.
Alongside her paintings, the exhibition will celebrate Thompson’s work as a graphic artist, sharing artist books from across her practice, featuring collaborations with fellow artist and friend Alison Jones. Spreads from their satirical take on Vogue fashion magazine as part of the project Vuoto (2012) will be shown alongside other publications and poster works, texts, video works and manifestoes such as I Choose Painting (2016). These illuminate Thompson’s network of collaborators, precocious interdisciplinarity, and distinctive voice as it moves through processes of self-discovery with humour and anger, to forge a renewed artistic practice in mid-life. As Thompson asserts, ‘Art is a place to experiment, make mistakes and understand failure. It provides an alternative route to making absolute or well-researched proclamations.’ The exhibition will include works from her last major project The Moon, The Sea & The Matriarch, which took place at Timespan, Helmsdale (2019) which saw her make interventions across the village alongside an exhibition of paintings and other works.
BIOGRAPHY
Milly Thompson was in artists’ collective BANK from 1994 to 2003, and created work for solo and group exhibitions at galleries including Tate Modern, ICA and Whitechapel Gallery. Her individual work has been featured in exhibitions, residencies and commissions at galleries including Peer UK, Focal Point Gallery and South London Gallery. Projects include two related commissioned prints for Focal Point Gallery: Save Southend-on-Sea Central Library (2009) and BOGOF (2016) and the publication Alison Jones & Milly Thompson C21ST RECENT HISTORY (2016) narrating the collaborations and collected works from 2010. Milly is a six-time recipient of the Goldsmiths Research Award, a two-time winner of the Arts Council of England’s Individual Artist Award and the Elephant Trust Award, and has also been presented with the British School at Rome’s Sargant Award and the Paul Hamlyn Foundation Award.
BANK’s work is held in various public collections including TATE, British Council, MOMA NY and Printed Matter NY. Milly’s solo work is held by the British Library, Printed Matter NY and Focal Point Gallery.
