The Spring 2026 Graduate Art guest lecture series, organized by Jack Bankowsky and Jason Smith.

Cheyney Thompson

This event is free and open to the public. RSVPs are not required.

Cheyney Thompson (b. 1975) is a visual artist whose work in painting, sculpture, and exhibition design examines how technical and social systems and historical context condition the work of art’s visibility and legibility. At the core of Thompson’s practice is an analytical approach and commitment to the examination of painting—its production, distribution and presentation in contemporary conditions.

Thompson was the co-founder of Scorched Earth (2007), along with Sam Lewitt and Gareth James, a journal and curatorial project which brought together scholars and artists for regular meetings and seminars centered around a possible critical history of drawing. Thompson also recently translated Jean Clay’s Certain Aspects of Bourgeois Art: Non-intervention for October, and translated work by Jean Clay as part of a workshop on the work of Martin Barré in 2013. Thompson has published his own writing in Mousse and Artforum, and has contributed to a collection of writings on Martin Barré and other artist monographs.

Thompson has exhibited extensively over the last 25 years. Recent exhibitions include: Between Pixel and Pigment: Hybrid Painting in Post-Digital Times at Marta Herford Museum, Herford and Kunsthalle Bielefeld, both Germany (2024); For What It’s Worth, Value Systems in Art Since 1960 at The Warehouse Dallas Art Foundation, Dallas, TX (2024); Low Form: Imaginaries and Visions in the Age of Artificial Intelligence at MAXXI, Rome, Italy (2019); and Programmed: Rules, Codes, and Choreographies in Art, 1965–2018 at the Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, NY (2019).

Image: Installation view of Cheyney Thompson: Intervals (2023-24), Cheyney Thompson. Photo: Lisson Gallery.

See the full Spring 2026 Seminar schedule here.

Support for this series is generously provided by the following: Jack Shear, Brenda R. Potter, Brendan Dugan, Lisson Gallery, Beth Rudin DeWoody, BLUM, Hannah Hoffman, David Kordansky, and Jeffrey Deitch.

ArtCenter's Graduate Art program is based on intensive studio practice and rigorous academic coursework. The program is distinguished by its low faculty-to-student ratio that provides students with the attention and feedback they need to refine and achieve their artistic goals. Faculty and students are artists working in all genres—film, video, photography, painting, sculpture, performance and installation. A significant number of alumni have achieved national and international acclaim and often return to share their insights and expertise as visiting faculty and guest lecturers.