Zipporah Camille Thompson
Zipporah Camille Thompson is a weaver and sculptor based in Atlanta, Georgia. Thompson’s work explores alchemical transformations through clay and woven textiles, delving into themes of chaos, metamorphosis, and triumph. Her practice weaves together cosmic, ancestral narratives with the Black imaginary through sculpted shapeshifters and hybrid landscapes. Through these works, she investigates hope, otherworlds, magic, and power within a boundless framework of spirituality. Thompson earned her MFA from the University of Georgia and her BFA from the University of North Carolina at Charlotte. Her work has been featured in numerous publications and exhibited nationally and internationally. She is a 2025 Socrates Fellow, a 2024 Skowhegan resident, a 2024 South Arts Georgia Fellow for Visual Arts, a 2023 recipient of the Margie E. West Prize, a 2021 MOCA GA Working Artist Project Fellow, a 2020 Artadia Atlanta Awardee, and has received numerous additional honors, including the Watershed Zenobia Scholarship, the NCECA Multicultural Fellowship, and an Idea Capital Travel Grant. Thompson is represented by Whitespace Gallery in Atlanta, GA. Outside of her practice, she is a history enthusiast, roller-skater, and lover of unicorns, zombies, the moon, tarot, and all things fantasy.
Artworks
“spellbound” is a public art project that seeks to embody the delicate balance between destruction and resilience in the face of natural disaster. The sculpture reflects the cyclical forces of nature — the constant undoing and redoing of what is lost and restored — while exploring the tension between dislocation and recovery. Through its dynamic directional flow, the installation guides viewers’ gaze both upward toward the cosmos and downward toward the Earth, drawing conceptual connections between the heavens and the land.
In response to the growing frequency and intensity of hurricanes, “spellbound” reimagines the destructive forces of wind and water. Rather than merely representing their chaos, the sculpture transforms these forces into symbols of healing, channeling their energy toward the restoration of the East River’s urban waterfront and the eastern seawall. By doing so, it challenges the patriarchal capitalist systems that exacerbate environmental degradation and advocates for ecological recovery.