Studio 66 Interview: Guillermo Presents Art Collector Bridget Thompson
Bridget Thompson with Guillermo Trejo. Artworks by Jessica Bell, Michael Belmore and Craig Leonard.
Guillermo Trejo of Studio66 interviews Central Art Garage co-owner and art collector Bridget Thompson
I have known Bridget for about 8 years. We met when she was interested in purchasing some of my prints (they were a couple of large poster-size prints of two wrestlers). I had shown these prints during the second ‘Chinatown Remixed’, at a store on Somerset Street that doesn't exist anymore. I have to say that I loved those prints. Particularly for the kind of joyful quality that they had, but mainly for the naive style. I am not saying that my current art practice doesn’t bring me joy, but I can feel how my work is more mature now and how my own expectation s about art production are completely different.
Bridget and I met for that reason but our connection increased as the years passed, especially because she and her partner Danny Hussey are a power couple of the arts in Ottawa. They co-own, Central Art Garage framing studio and art gallery, one the most interesting spaces in the city for contemporary art exhibitions, and definite the house of the finest handmade frames. Bridget is also a big supporter of many art organizations and probably the only ‘civilian’ that I know that has looked over budgets of art institutions! That definitely shows commitment! Not a surprise she is also a collector of art and design.
- Guillermo Trejo