Khalif Tahir Thompson

Khalif Tahir Thompson’s work can be seen as a kind of portraiture – both individual and collective, weaving through time. Born and based in Brooklyn, the artist invites viewers into the everyday lives of his subjects through vibrant domestic scenes, full of texture and pattern. It was amidst the global Covid pandemic that Thompson first began delving into his family archives, seeking inspiration. After his maternal grandmother Betty passed away in 2006, her boxes of family photo albums were placed into storage for sixteen years until Thompson’s sister was able to make the road trip from New York to Florida to retrieve them. These images provided comfort and reprieve from the chaos and uncertainty of that time. What started as a small group of paintings honouring his familial ancestry evolved into a series that probed his interest in storytelling and artistic languages found within art history, particularly that of Black American experience.  

In this ongoing series, Thompson constructs compositions using this familial cast of characters, layering contemporary and cultural references that encourage us to consider notions of race, home, time, belonging and, crucially, how identity is shared. The work, as noted by Debbie Meniru, ‘floats across an uncertain chronology… Although rooted in the past, his paintings constantly pull us back to the present moment.’ Layered, too, is the painting surface – with collaged elements including paper and fabric, along with improvised arrangements of letters and numbers. Meniru writes, ‘As with the other collaged elements, they challenge the illusory space of the painting, making its physicality come to the fore. These symbols aren’t supposed to be deciphered. They force us to look beyond our desire to decode. To me, they seem like signs of life or perhaps an untold story, while Thompson has described them as “visual noise”. Like musical notes, they bring rhythm and sound to the paintings. Not a clear 4/4 beat but moments of syncopation, heady emotional swells and quiet refrains. They suggest more is at play than we are able to comprehend just by looking. Thompson asks us to imagine too.’ 

The artist states, ‘I believe painting can be a tool in considering the emotional and psychological complexity of an individual’s story and identity. Creating imagery that connects one to the realm of another, I alter perception and invoke empathy towards my subjects, depicting their reality across a visceral lens.’