Martin Thompson: Razzle Dazzle w/ Charles Ninow: 19th September, 2025

Razzle Dazzle is a new exhibition showing a suite of previously unexhibited works from 2005-2006 by Martin Thompson, opening tonight at Charles Ninow Gallery. 

Martin Thompson (1956-2021) was a self-taught artist from the Wellington Region who became renowned for his abstract drawings. 

Although embodying these digital, post-internet, and almost early video game-like qualities, Thompson’s work was shaped and directed by fractals, which showed how simple mathematical rules can generate the complex structures we see in nature. 

The works in Razzle Dazzle show Thompson extending and upscaling his drawings beyond A3 and A4 graph paper, using a decidedly anti-digital approach with a Xerox machine, inviting an inspection of the works’ delicate complexities. 

Sof had a kōrero with Gallery Director and Curator Charles Ninow about Martin Thompson, his life, and practice.