Kat Thompson is a multidisciplinary artist and educator based in Virginia. She holds an MFA in Photography and Film from Virginia Commonwealth University and a BFA in Photography from George Mason University.

Rooted in her Jamaican heritage, Thompson’s lens-based practice spans photography, textiles, sculptural collage, and installation to explore Black selfhood within the African Diaspora. Her work delves into themes of dual identity, diaspora, and memory, drawing from personal and archival materials to trace familial migration and cultural continuity. Through this layering of histories, Thompson uncovers narratives that speak to the complexity of identity—stories that bridge personal experience with collective memory, while imagining both present realities and speculative futures.

Her work has been exhibited at the 1780 Gallery and Page Bond Gallery (Richmond, VA); Visible Records (Charlottesville, VA); the Fenwick and Gillespie Galleries at George Mason University (Fairfax, VA); the Tephra Institute of Contemporary Art (Reston, VA); and in other exhibitions throughout the Washington, D.C. area. She is currently a 2023–2025 Hamiltonian Artists Fellow in Washington, D.C.

Kat Thompson’s residency at El Espacio 23 is presented in partnership with Women Photographers International Archive (WOPHA).