The late Milly Thompson’s final works explore sun-drenched summer holidays and romantic novels as spaces for escapism and sensual self-reinvention.

Part of the renowned BANK artist group, Milly Thompson went on to establish a solo practice in which she lampooned consumer culture in regard to its effect on women. She also celebrated the middle-aged female body for its libidinal power. She died in 2022, and this show concentrates on the work she did from 2010 onwards. It strongly renders and establishes a sense of the female gaze, privileging female desire and glamour. Works like ‘Hunter Watching the Beach’ and ‘La Vergne in the Afternoon’ embody her playful reappropriation of the exoticised and eroticised female nude, reinterpreting this traditional art trope through a contemporary lens by integrating middle-aged bodies in vivid, sun-bleached hues.

Milly Thompson: My Body Temperature if Feeling Good, 28 March-30 August, Baltic, Gateshead, baltic.art