Richard Thompson was born in Auckland
in 1965 and graduated from Elam School of Fine Arts in 1990. He is
equally well-known for his painting as for his sculpture.
As a painter, Thompson utilises many
of the same motifs present in his sculpture, notably the 'Tau'
cross (in part a homage to - and appropriation from - McCahon, in
part a self-reflective injection of individual personality in
reference to the 'T' of his surname) and the quarter-circle
'waterfall' motif.
In 2001, Thompson travelled to
Antarctica as part of a Creative
New Zealand initiative, a journey that strongly influenced his
subsequent works, drawing his palettes down from multi-tonal colour
to monochromatic simplicity.
Thompson has created several large-scale sculptures for private
collections, notably the Albany District Court in Auckland and the
foyer sculpture Three Standing for the Price Waterhouse
Coopers tower in the Auckland CBD. His work is held in collections
throughout New Zealand and Australia, including the Chartwell
Collection at the Auckland Art Gallery, The Jenny Gibbs collection
and the Wallace Art Trust collection.