BMT ARTS

BIO

Newark based painter Bleriot Thompson is a mixed media artist working primarily with paint to find where identity lies in the struggle for equality. Thompson studied at the University of William Paterson where he received his B.F.A in 2018.  His work looks to push the boundary between art, culture, and its preservation through documentation. How does one actively battle the suppression of their own experience? We have been a people of so much pain we have been a people of so much suffering. How do we hold on? In 2018, Thompson was accepted into Creative Capital’s Professional Development Program, and in the following year 2019, he was accepted into the Early Art Practitioners pilot program at the Joan Mitchell Foundation in New York. Thompson has exhibited work at several galleries and institutions some of the noteworthy include Gallery Aferro, The Brooklyn Museum, The Brooklyn Children’s Museum, Ben Shaun University Galleries at William Paterson University. In the fall of 2023, Thompson presented the first solo exhibition for his current series titled Public Enemy in his hometown of Newark, NJ at Gallery Aferro. A portrait from this series has been selected for a permanent outdoor installation at the Brooklyn Children’s Museum’s Skating Rink and was installed in December of 2023. To open 2024, Thompson will have a Solo Exhibition at the Rutgers Center for Global Racial Justice (CGRJ) in partnership with Paul Robeson Galleries, at Rutgers University (Newark)..

About Public Enemy

Public Enemy looks to push the boundary between art, culture, and its preservation through documentation. How does one actively battle the suppression of their own experience? Culture can only exist when a set of values comes to be acknowledged as sound and sacred by a group of people. The group can hold the meaning of those values with confidence and share different iterations with one another. I was inspired by the mediums that sought the most direct communication while having the ability to create authentic connections between friends, family, and strangers. All while moving with the understanding that we need to have compassion for an experience that we cannot fully grasp if we are truly seeking understanding.