Jonathan Thunder

Thunder infuses his personal lens with real-time world experiences using a wide range of mediums. He is known for his surrealistic paintings, as well as digitally animated films and installations in which he addresses subject matter of personal experience, Indigenous perspective, environmental welfare, and humorous social commentary. Jonathan is an enrolled member of the Red Lake Band of Ojibwe, and makes his home and studio in Duluth, MN.

He has attended the Institute of American Indian Arts (IAIA) in Santa Fe, NM and studied Visual Effects and Motion Graphics in Minneapolis, MN at the Art Institute International. His work has been featured in many states, regional, and national exhibitions, as well as in local and international publications. Thunder is the recipient of a 2020-21 Pollock – Krasner Foundation Award for his risk taking in painting. He has won several awards for his short films in national and international competitions. His painting and digital work is in the permanent collections of multiple Museums and Universities.

2005 B.S. in Visual Effects and Motion Graphics, Art Institute International Minnesota, Minneapolis, MN

1999 – 2000 Institute of American Indian Arts, Studio Arts, Santa Fe, NM

2016 Honorary Degree, Institute of American Indian Arts, Santa Fe, NM

SOLO EXHIBITIONS

2019

Suspension of Disbelief, (painting exhibit and film retrospective) Finlandia University Gallery, Hancock, MI

2018

Manifest’o, Tweed Museum of Art, Duluth, MN

New Heroes from the Old World, MacRostie Art Center, Grand Rapids, MN

Suspension of Disbelief, Duluth Art Institute, Duluth, MN

2017

Peripheral Vignettes, (painting exhibit and film retrospective) Duluth Art Institute, Duluth, MN

2016

The Politics of Dreams: Defying Dilettantism, (painting exhibit and film retrospective) Edge Center for the Arts, Bigfork, MN

Underwater Dreaming Bunnies, Zeitgeist Center for the Arts, Duluth, MN

2013

Paintings and Short Films, Trepanier Hall, Duluth, MN

Solo Exhibit, Kruk Gallery, University of Superior Wisconsin, Duluth, MN

2003

Paintings by Jonathan Thunder, Two Rivers Gallery, Minneapolis, MN