My Story
My name is Dan Thompson - I am a New York City based instructor, working in representational drawing, painting and sculpture. I teach artists how to visualize the Human Figure the three dimensions. I was born in Alexandria, Virginia. I’m part Cherokee Indian; my native American name is Danuwoa, meaning warrior. In my teens I was a heavy metal singer before becoming an serious art student - my entryway into the world of visual arts training was designing the band’s flyers for live shows.
I graduated from the Corcoran School of Art in Washington, DC. I earned my MFA from the Graduate School of Figurative Art of the New York Academy of Art (NYAA) and supplemented my training with several additional years of private study and studio apprenticeships along the east coast of the United States.
I have received multiple grants and prestigious awards, including from the Elizabeth Greenshields Foundation, the Salmagundi Club and the Corcoran College of Art and Design. In 2001, I won Best of Show in the American Society of Portrait Artist’s International Portrait Competition at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York.
I have co-founded two schools in Manhattan: the Grand Central Academy of Art (2006) and the Janus Collaborative School of Art (2008). I have instructed at Studio 126 in New York, the Art Students League of New York, the National Academy School, and Parsons the New School for Design. I have also served as Dean of Fine Arts, Faculty Chair, and Curriculum Specialist. I have designed educational programming by exploring a convergence between art and medicine.
I’ve been selected an ARC Living Master Artist.
I have been exhibited in public and private collections throughout the world, including the Eleanor Ettinger Gallery, the Art Gallery of Ontario, the University of Pennsylvania, the Corcoran Gallery of Art, the John Noble Museum, the Pasadena Museum of California Art, the National Arts Club, the United States Capitol and Beijing’s World Art Museum.
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