Mille Bornes
Charlie James Gallery is delighted to feature our second gallery solo project with Colorado-based artist Jim Thompson (b.1970, New York). In Mille Bornes, Thompson again mines the material of his youth for images of particular resonance. The paintings in this series are based on the 1954 French card game Mille Bornes, which he played in his youth, the object of which is to be the first player to go 1,000 miles. Players attempt to slow one another down with hazards like accidents, speed limits, flat tires, and stop lights. Mileage cards are played to advance toward 1,000. Each hazard card has a corresponding remedy, and four super cards make players impervious to specific hazards.
Thompson’s practice has a preoccupation with both memory and context. A child of the Pictures Generation, he looks for subject territory in objects that function as fine art functions while remaining outside of a fine art context. These Mille Bornes card images demonstrate examples of where graphic design satisfies most of the functions historically expected of fine art, including beauty, clarity, and indelibility. Through painting, Thompson annexes these forms into a fine art context, and codify the durable images of his youth. Thompson’s work has been exhibited at art fairs domestically and internationally, including The Miami Project Art Fair, The Dallas Art Fair, Art Toronto, and others. Thompson’s work was exhibited in 2012 at the Eric Firestone Gallery in East Hampton, NY. He lives and works in Boulder, Colorado.
Installation
