ÖZLEM THOMPSON - The World provides beauty and wonder every day

Although interested in art from a very early age, Özlem Thompson obtained an undergraduate degree in biology and completed her master’s degree in botany with a thesis on the subject of ‘Exotic Plants and Their Usage in Industrial Design’.

After graduating she decided to listen to her inner voice and concentrate on her art, making it her career focus. She moved to Belsize Park, North London, where she works and lives in the same flat where Mondrian used to paint before the start of the Second World War. Her background in biology and organic structures became a strong influence on her work, and key to her process is the abstraction of forms of nature to effectively describe the concepts that flow from her subconscious.

“My inspiration comes largely from nature; from the biology that I spent eight years studying, single-celled organisms to whole ecosystems, even evolution and its systems, microbiology and of course my imagination. I think art must be within you first and then you can introduce it to your work. By that I mean that artistic people have a tendency to see the world in a special way.”

Özlem Thompson – Interview by Averil ArterNet Art – published in September 2021

Merging intellectual concepts with visual ideas, she uses bold colors to express feelings, and mixing real and imagined organic structures with one another. This creates the impression of dream-like world, a vivid explosion of nature meeting fantasy.

Born in Istanbul, Özlem Sorlu Thompson paints in the flat where Piet Mondrian made his art studio in London. With Mondrian her influences also include the great expressionist artist Kandinsky and abstract surrealist Joan Miró.

Özlem’s works have already made their way into the homes of renowned celebrities such as actress Anita Dobson and her husband Brian May, musical theatre star Maria Friedman, actor Andy Nyman, and private collectors all around the world. She is one of seven leading artists whose designs are featured on giant fibreglass eggs for the Platinum Jubilee celebration of Queen Elizabeth II in 2022.