Jonathan Thomson is an Artist, Art Historian, Critic and Curator. He was born in Whyalla, South Australia and has lived and worked in Hong Kong since 1995.
His work reflects his interest in elusive forms, transience, ephemera and fragility as fundamental components of beauty and as representative of the joys and sorrows of life and love. Beauty is relatve to different times and different cultures and all too often the delight it gives us is tempered by the fact that it too, like the perfume of flowers and the bloom of youth, will fade. All things must pass, but in our hearts and minds, that which we find beautiful is a possession for all eternity.
As an art historian he knows that there is no originality except on the basis of tradition. His work is thus always made with an eye to its antecedents, across all cultures and periods of time.
Thomson has worked in and around art for more than 30 years. He has had high-level experience in public arts administration in Australia and Hong Kong including terms as Deputy Director (Strategic Development) and Head of Secretariat at the Australia Council for the Arts and Deputy Secretary General of the Hong Kong Arts Development Council. In 2013 he was appointed adjunct Professor of Art History as SCAD (Hong Kong).
He holds a Bachelor Degree in Economics from Adelaide University, a Bachelor Degree in Visual Arts from Flinders University, and a Master of Philosophy Degree in Art History from the University of Hong Kong. He established Thomson Fine Art in 2000 as an Arts Management Consultancy offering professional creative business services. Major clients include the Hong Kong based Osage group of galleries which he helped grow from one small shop front gallery into one of Asia's largest gallery groups. As Art Consultant to Louis Vuitton Asia Pacific he helped the company to build its brand through the establishment and successful operation of high profile gallery spaces in Hong Kong, Macau, Taipei and Singapore.
He is an independent curator with dozens of exhibitions to his credit as curator and dozens more as consultant. He is an author and essayist including author of "Hong Kong: Culture and Creativity" published in 2006 by the Hong Kong Arts Development Council and many hundreds of published essays and reviews.