Jillian Thompson: Limitless

Community Gallery, February 10 – May 7 

Jillian Thompson: Limitless showcases new work by multidisciplinary artist Jillian Thompson that explores the formation of Black womanhood and self-identity. Thompson is interested in how memory and day-to-day experience intertwine to shape personal and cultural expression. Referencing found imagery culled from social media and magazines, Thompson explores the creation of contemporary Black womanhood that plays out in prevailing trends in language, style, and material culture. Examples of Thompson’s work across collage, printmaking, and metalwork will be featured.   

The exhibition takes its title from Thompson’s work limitless (2025), which combines painting and collage techniques in a vibrant assemblage made from shoebox lids. Shoebox lids are a recurring theme in Thompson’s work, alluding to the aspiration of personal style and the collective participation in a culture of consumption. Thompson’s photolithographs often combine image and text to produce narrative portraits of hyper-visual social media personas flashing their individualized looks, as in icy girl (2025) and video phone(2025). Thompson’s handmade accessories, created from bronze and stoneware components, employ shape and color to demonstrate the ways in which visual signifiers are used to construct and communicate self-identity. 

Together, Thompson’s artworks reveal the ways in which the formation of the self is a social practice that gives rise to continuous exploration, study, and exchange. “As young girls, we recorded music videos on VHS tapes, rewinding and pausing to study the fashion before scouring the mall for similar pieces. These experiences shaped my understanding of Black girlhood and continue to shape my experiences as an adult,” says Thompson. “My work honors contemporary Black women, using adornment to explore identity and cultural history.” 

Thompson received an MFA in Jewelry & Metalsmithing from California State University, Long Beach in 2020.