June - July 2009
7 Below Arts Initiative, Artist Residency
Burlington, Vermont
September - November 2009
Bemis Center for Contemporary Arts, Artist Residency
Omaha, Nebraska
Fall 2009
GAZER, RARE Gallery
New York, New York
contact information Christine Gray 12 W. Clay St. Apt A Richmond, VA 23220
Nina Rizzo
Monica Palma
Calvin Burton
Theresa Marchetta
Nichole van Beek
Dan Sutherland
Joe Reihsen
Sterling Allen
Jonathan Marshall
Eric Beltz
Stephanie McMahon
Christine Kuper
Project 4 Gallery
Okay Mountain
Images of the idyllic American pastoral and the sublime landscape revere nature’s beauty, bounty, and benevolence. Both define an unattainable relationship between ‘culture’ and ‘nature’. The ideals inherent in these abstractions set up a lose-lose situation between sub/urbanites and the non-architectural spaces and species that surround us. As we fail to understand the difference between the ideal ‘nature’ and the hyper-complexity that is ‘other’ than human/made, we alienate ourselves against the backdrop of everything. This categorical splitting frames ‘nature’ as a thing to find, get, and use as we seek to commune or to reconnect with it. The National Park Service frames the landscape through ‘National Monument’ distinctions which are as an end entertainment. Postcards frame as do countless other agents of representation. Inside the frame exists an illusory fragment of the ‘real’, a fantasy which is clean, vast, untouched, welcoming, and fun. The representational devices that transform these edited images into mythological ideals are central to my work.
Painting from elaborate models, I orchestrate fantastic landscapes which offer a self-aware escapist indulgence to the viewer. Several levels of fiction are present in each painting. The model itself is a factual reference for the über-reality realized in the painting. Using paper, cardboard, yarn, fabric, beads, and other craft materials I create faux-versions of culturally specific objects, animals, plants, and architecture. Craft materials imply accessibility and play, inviting their users to fashion their own make-shift realities. These fabrications are combined with more traditional still-life objects (fruits, vegetables, or ready-made objects) in order separate the ‘real’ object (functional) from the synthetic substitution (useless). The mechanics of the illusion are revealed through gestural brushwork alongside highly rendered passages and other transitions between paint and image. The scenario presented in each painting also thematically plays with the construction of a fictive vision of nature. The myths or misrepresentations of seasonal celebrations inform the situations I set up in each painting. Although my paintings reveal the mechanics of their own production the situations conjure a magical spectacle where the banal coexists with the fantastic in a humorous play between criticality and whimsy.
| 2009 |
Reynolds Gallery, Richmond, Virginia, March 2010. (upcoming) GAZER, RARE Gallery, New York, New York, Fall 2009. (upcoming) Depth of Field: Christine Gray and Terri Weifenbach, Fosdick-Nelson Gallery, Alfred University, February 2009. |
| 2008 | Spring Thaw, Project 4 Gallery, Washington, D.C., April 2008. |
| 2007 | Mimeographic Spectrum, Okay Mountain, Austin, Texas, July 2007. |
| 2008 |
Particularities and Abstractions, Center for the Arts Gallery, Towson University, Towson, Maryland, October 2008. Ultrasonic International III: Elementary, My Dear Watson, Mark Moore Gallery, Santa Monica, California, September 2008. Almost Famous, Reynolds Gallery, Richmond, Virginia, September 2008. Small Claims, Page Bond Gallery, Richmond, Virginia, August 2008. Scope NY, Project 4 Booth, Lincoln Center, New York, New York, March 2008. 2, Project 4 Gallery, Washington, D.C., February 2008. New Work, Reynolds Gallery, Richmond, Virginia, January 2008. |
| 2007 |
Aqua Art Fair, Project 4 Booth, Miami, Florida, December 2007. True Metier, Santa Barbara Contemporary Arts Forum, Santa Barbara, California, September 2007, catalog with essay by Frederick Janke Compass 2007, University of California, Riverside, California, July 2007, catalog with essay by Ciara Ennis and Tyler Stallings High Five: Emerging Art in America, CW Headquarters, Burbank, California, July 2007, catalog with essay by David Pagel |
| 2006 |
GLAMFA Exhibition, California State University of Long Beach, Long Beach, California, August 2006 Bright Young Things, The Arts Fund Gallery, Santa Barbara, California, August 2006 |
| 2005 | 2005 Texas Biennial, Bolm Studios, Austin, Texas, March 2005, Catalog with essay by Dana Friis-Hansen. |
| 2004 | Truffle Shuffle, Camp Fig, Austin, Texas, October 2004 |
| 2008 |
Kriston Capps, “Spring Thaw” Exhibition essay, Project 4 Gallery. Jessica Dawson, “Christine Gray’s Household Helpers,” The Washington Post, April 25, 2008. Rachel Sitkin, “Spring Thaw Review”, B-more Art, April 29, 2008. Maura Judkis, “Spring Thaw,” Washington City Paper, April 30, 2008. |
| 2007 |
Tim Bowring, “Interview with Christine Gray,” Zero Hour, WRIR, Richmond, Virginia, November 20, 2007. Melissa Seley, “CAF Celebrates Tri-County Artists with True Métier,” Santa Barbara Independent, September 20, 2007. Josef Woodard, “Call for a Calling,” Santa Barbara News Press, September 14-20, 2007. “Santa Barbara Contemporary Arts Forum: An Artist’s True Métier,” CASA Magazine, September 7, 2007. Salvador Castillo, “Christine Gray: Mimeographic Spectrum,” Austin Chronicle, July 20, 2007 |
| 2006 |
Theatre Survey: The Journal of the American Society for Theatre Research, Volume 47, Number 2, November 2006. (Cover image) Josef Woodard, "Hidden in Plain Sight." Santa Barbara News Press, September 1-7, 2006. |
| 2005 |
Rebecca S. Cohen, "Texas Biennial 2005." Artl!es, Spring 2005, No. 46. J R Compton, "The 2005 Texas Biennial: The Illusive 3rd Dimension." Dallas Arts Revue, March, 2005. Austin Chronicle, Volume 24, No. 30, March 25, 2005. Elaine Wolff, "Digital-induced angst and sensory overload". San Antonio Current, March, 10, 2005. |
| 2004 |
New American Paintings, Number 54, 2004. Anna Held Audette, editor, 100 Creative Drawing Ideas, 2004. |
| 2009 |
Sam and Adele Golden Foundation for the Arts Fellowship Bemis Center for Contemporary Arts, Artist Residency, Omaha, Nebraska, September-November 2009. 7 Below Arts Initiative, Artist Residency, Burlington, Vermont, June-July 2009. Visiting Artist, Alfred University, Alfred, New York, January 2009. |
| 2008 |
Faculty Research Grant, Virginia Commonwealth University, Richmond, Virginia. |
| 2007 |
Faculty Research Grant, Virginia Commonwealth University, Richmond, Virginia. Levitan Fellowship, The University of California Santa Barbara. Visiting Artist Lecture, Virginia Commonwealth University, Richmond, Virginia. |
| 2006 |
Five Panelists, Five Perspectives, Women's Center, The University of California Santa Barbara. |
| 2005 |
Chancellor's Fellowship, The University of California Santa Barbara. Juror's Choice Award, Texas Biennial. |
| 2007 | MFA The University of California Santa Barbara, Santa Barbara, CA |
| 2003 | BFA The University of Texas at Austin, Austin, Texas |
| 1998 | The School of the Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago, Illinois |
Brief Bio
- Christine Gray was born in Fairfield, CA in 1980. She lives in Richmond, Virginia and is an Assistant Professor at Virginia Commonwealth University.