P. Seth Thompson is a visual artist working in digital media, photography, and video, exploring the intersection of nostalgia, technology, and perception. His work draws from VHS aesthetics, sci-fi cinema, lo-fi digital artifacts, and the visual language of analog distortion, using these elements to create fragmented realities that feel both familiar and alien. Through glitches, pixelation, and layers of interference, Thompson manipulates images in a way that mimics memory degradation—where the past, present, and imagined collide.
His fascination with VHS tapes isn’t just aesthetic—it’s personal. Growing up, video stores and late-night movie marathons shaped his sense of identity. Pausing, rewinding, and fast-forwarding through films became a way to dissect reality, and that obsessive engagement with moving images still drives his practice. His work often plays with sci-fi tropes, surveillance culture, and cinematic mythology, recontextualizing pop culture through a lens of digital decay.
Through a mix of digital collage, glitch manipulation, and photography, Thompson’s work breaks down images the way memory does—through distortion, noise, and interference. By drawing from 80s and 90s sci-fi, horror, and experimental cinema, he examines the way media warps perception, constructing alternative realities within the cracks of the familiar. His work often feels like a corrupted transmission from another timeline—where faces dissolve into static, colors bleed unnaturally, and reality flickers like an unstable signal.
SOLO EXHIBITIONS
2023: Hypnocil Dreams, Sandler Hudson Gallery, Atlanta, GA
2022: Hypnocil Dreams, The Safe Room Gallery in the Texas Theatre, Dallas, TX
2017: Insufficient Data for an Image, Sandler Hudson Gallery, Atlanta, GA
2015: P. Seth Thompson: Good Exposure, Arnall Golden Gregory, Atlanta, GA
2014: This Message Has No Content, Sandler Hudson Gallery, Atlanta, GA
2013: The Last One, Poem 88, Atlanta, GA
2012: The Tannhauser Gate, Ontologic Solutions, Atlanta, GA
GROUP EXHIBITIONS
2023-2025: Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport, Atlanta, GA
2018: Photo–ADT Coming Image, Academy of Arts and Design of Tsinghua University, Beijing, China
2017: If Art Can Start a New Again, Lishui International Photography Festival, Lishui, China
2017: Medium, Zuckerman Museum of Art, Kennesaw, GA
2016: Abstraction Today, MOCA GA, Atlanta, GA
2015: Atlas Restaurant, Atlanta, GA
2015: Spectrum 2015-Live Art Auction & Gala, Hunter Museum of American Art, Chattanooga, TN
2015: Atlanta Celebrates Photography 10th Annual Photography Auction, Mason Fine Art, Atlanta, GA.
2015: J1: ATHICA's first juried exhibition, ATHICA, Athens, GA
2015: Summer Salon, Sandler Hudson Gallery, Atlanta, GA
2015: The Fifth Annual Exposure Photography Award(digital display), The Louvre Museum, Paris, France
2015: Portalism: new moves from the 2014/15 Walthall Artist Fellows, MOCA GA, Atlanta, GA
2015: Burnaway 4th Annual Art Crush Auction, Abrams Fixture Building, Atlanta, GA
Art Papers 16th Annual Art Auction, Bobo Intriguing Objects, Atlanta, GA
2014: The shape of a Pocket: parallel thoughts in contemporary practice, Sandler Hudson Gallery, Atlanta, GA
2014: Artfields, Lake City, SC
2013: 100 at 100, Ernest G. Welch School of Art & Design, Georgia State University, Atlanta, GA
2012: Flowers for You, Stephan Stoyanov Gallery, New York, NY
2012: Talent Loves Company, Barbara Archer Gallery, Atlanta, GA
2011: GroundFloor: 2011 Dashboard Exhibition #2, Edgewood district, Atlanta, GA
2011: Silver and Ink, Savannah College of Art and Design, Savannah, GA
2011: Nature, Undisturbed, Dogwood Gallery, Tyrone, GA
2010: Silver and Ink, Savannah College of Art and Design, Savannah, GA
GALLERY REPRESENTATION
Sandler Hudson Gallery, Atlanta, GA
CURATORIAL PROJECTS
2017: Racecar, Zuckerman Museum of Art, Kennesaw, GA
2016: Short Shorts: The Jumpcut, Whitespace Gallery, Atlanta, GA
2011-12: Kiki Smith: Rituals, High Museum of Art, Atlanta, GA
COMMISSIONS
2015: Satisfaction. USA Networks, NYC. Television
2014: Hawks Cay Resort & Villas, Duck Key, FL
2014: Decatur Book Festival, Decatur, GA
EXHIBITION JUROR
2013: Festival, Dalton, GA
2012: The N.E.W. Show!, Visual Arts Exchange, Raleigh, NC
SPEAKING APPEARANCES
2020: Guest Critique, University of Georgia, Athens, GA
2019: Critique Leader, SCAD-Atlanta, Atlanta, GA
2017: Critique Leader, Atlanta Photography Group, Atlanta, GA
2017: Georgia State University, Atlanta, GA
2017: Sandler Hudson Gallery artist talk, Atlanta, GA
2016: Guest Critique, University of Georgia, Athens, GA
2015: All Those Moments, MOCA GA, Atlanta, GA
2014: This Conversation Has No Content, Sandler Hudson Gallery, Atlanta, GA
2014: SCAD-Atlanta, Atlanta, GA
2014: Georgia State University, Atlanta, GA
2013: The Last One artist talk, Poem 88, Atlanta, GA
BIBLIOGRAPHY
2017
Logan Lockner, "The More I go over it, the more I see in it: Zuckerman Museum of Art's 'Medium.'" ArtsATL, Oct. 12, 2017.
Nathan Sharatt, "Glitch-By-Number: Insufficient Data for a Conversation," Burnaway, April 28, 2017.
Jeremy Abernathy, "'Insufficient Data for an Image’–P. Seth Thompson at Sandler Hudson Gallery," Burnaway, April 14, 2017.
2016
Nicola Breslauer, "Short Shorts 2016: An Interview with P. Seth Thompson," Oz Magazine, August 16, 2016.
Donna Mintz, "Forms of Abstraction at MOCA GA," Burnaway.
2015
Kimberly Binns, "Crush Cribs: P. Seth Thompson," Burnaway(video), Atlanta, GA
2014
Floyd Hall, "WonderRoot Podcast: P. Seth Thompson," BurnawayRadio(podcast), November 26, 2014.
Creative Loafing, Cover, vol. 43, no. 28, November 2014.
Muriel Vega, "Art-Techstic Speech: How Technology Informs and Inspires 3 ATL Artists," Creative Loafing, vol. 43, no. 28, November 2014. 35
Faith McClure, "P. Seth Thompson indulges in and questions our hyperdigitized reality, at Sandler Hudson," ArtsATL, October 8, 2014. Dan Weiskopf, "Through Alien Eyes: P. Seth Thompson at Sandler Hudson," Burnaway, September 25, 2014.
Dr. Jerry Cullum, "Shape of a Pocket smart, engaging but also frustrating, at Sandler Hudson," ArtsATL, September 2, 2014.
Stephanie Dowda, "The Power of Two in The Shape of a Pocket Sandler Hudson," Burnaway, August 12, 2014.
Stacia Yeapanis, "OtherPeoplesPixels interviews P. Seth Thompson," OtherPeoplesPixels(blog), July 24, 2014.
Cinque Hicks, "P. Seth Thompson at Poem 88", Art in America, March 2014. 158
2013
Meredith Kooi, "Cosmic Images and Inner Realities: P. Seth Thompson's The Last One," Bad at Sports: Contemporary Art Talk, December 26, 2013.
Kate Abney, "Ones to Watch," The Atlantan(Arts & Power Issue), December 2013. 95
Jill Frank, "Dodge & Burn: P. Seth Thompson," BURNAWAY, July 15, 2013.
2012
Kate Sweeney, "Dashboard Co-op Brings Art to Unexpected Spaces," WABE, July 26, 2012.
Winston Ward, "Thompson's Tannhäuser Gate Celebrates the Unknowable," Burnaway, June 6, 2012.
Debbie Michaud, "A few questions with photographer P. Seth Thompson," Creative Loafing, May 16, 2012.
2011
Joanna Bledsoe, "The Bizarre and Beautiful World of Kiki Smith," MutualArt.com, November 2, 2011.
Ann Nichols, "Festival 2011," Chattanooga Times Free Press, September 11, 2011. E10
HONORS AND AWARDS
2022: Cohort 3 Artist-in-Residence, Cedars Union, Dallas, TX
2014-15: Walthall Artist Fellowship, Atlanta, GA
2014: Finalist, John Gutmann Photography Fellowship Award, San Francisco, CA
2014: Finalist, Artadia: The Fund for Art & Dialogue, Brooklyn, NY
2012: Finalist, The 5th annual Forward Arts Foundation Emerging Artist Award, Atlanta, GA
2012: Phenomenal Focus Scholarship: Excellence in Photography, Savannah College of Art & Design, Atlanta, GA
2012: Dashboard Co-op Selected Artist, Atlanta, GA
2012: 3rd Place, Nature, Undisturbed, Dogwood Gallery, Atlanta, GA
COLLECTIONS
Lucinda Bunnen, Atlanta, GA
Fulton County Arts Council, Atlanta, GA
High Museum of Art, Atlanta, GA
Jared Paul Interiors, Atlanta, GA
MOCA-GA, Atlanta, GA
Scott Laslie Interior Designs, Atlanta, GA
Sir Elton John Photography Collection, Atlanta, GA
Michael Rooks, Senior curator of Modern & Contemporary Art, High Museum of Art, Atlanta, GA
Lily Siegel, Executive Director at Hamiltonian Artists, Washington DC
Tavistock Group, LLC, Windermere, FL