Chris Weller
Artist based in New York, NY
ABOUT
Private Collections: Edward Miller and Monina von Opel, Laurie David, Dr. Francis Camillo, Larry Bell, Pierre Beaufils, Elisabeth Wilmers, Nicolas and Phoebe de Croisset, Richard Cunniff, Oren Tatcher, Marc de Croisset
Permanent Collections: Western Michigan University, Kalamazoo Michigan, Martha’s Vineyard Hospital, Massachusetts, Martha’s Vineyard Agricultural Society, Massachusetts, Michigan Technological University, Houghton, MI
Solo Exhibitions: 2021-22 — Doris C. and Alan J. Freedman Gallery (Municipal Art Society of New York City) - People & Places: Portraits of a City, 2017 — Emma Peel Room, New York, NY, 2008 — Brooklyn Art Space, New York, NY, 2000 — Spring Studio, New York, NY
Group Exhibitions: 2024 — “The Brooklyn Artists Exhibition” - Brooklyn Museum, Brooklyn, NY, 2024 — “Reflections of Us” - Warnes Contemporary Gallery. Brooklyn, NY, 2023 — 19th annual “Small Works” Show - 440 Gallery, Brooklyn, NY, 2023 — “Structures” - Glen Hansen Studio and Gallery, Southold, NY, 2022 — “Warm Wishes” - Established Gallery, Brooklyn, NY, 2022 — 18th Annual “Small Works” Show - 440 Gallery, Brooklyn, NY, 2022 — “SCAPE” - Glen Hansen Studio and Gallery, Southold, NY, 2022 — “Below a Brooklyn Sky” - Established Gallery, Brooklyn, NY, 2022 — “The Big Duck” - Glen Hansen Studio and Gallery, Southold, NY, 2022 — “Detour” - East End Arts, Riverhead, NY, 2022 — “The Tower” - Arts Gowanus, Brooklyn, NY, 2022 — “The Color Yellow” - Glen Hansen Studio and Gallery, Southold, NY, 2022 — “DRAW” - Glen Hansen Studio and Gallery, Southold, NY, 2021 — “We’re Still Here” - Arts Gowanus, Brooklyn NY, 2021 — “There’s no place like…” - Artsy, Online, 2017 — Immersive Art Experience - Industry City, Brooklyn, NY, 2017 — “Street Wise” - A Gallery, Martha’s Vineyard, MV, 2016 — Member Salon - Trestle Gallery, Brooklyn, NY, 2015 — “Compositions” Show - Trestle Gallery, Brooklyn, NY, 2010 — Gramercy Neighborhood Association Annual Exhibition, New York, NY, 2009 — Spring Studio 11th Anniversary Show, New York, NY, 2007 — National Arts Club, New York, NY, 2005 — Craven Gallery – Martha’s Vineyard, MA, 1990 — The Kalamazoo Institute of the Arts, Kalamazoo, MI, 1990 — Michigan Artists Competition, Battle Creek, MI
Education: Western Michigan University, Honors College, B.F.A. Painting
Awards: 2019 — Martha’s Vineyard Drawing Prize - First Place
Publications: 2021 — Create! Magazine Issue #24, Curated by Christopher Jobson @ Colossal, 2023 — The Best of Drawing Magazine: 14th Annual Strokes of Genius Issue, presented by Artists Magazine and American Artist
Interviews: February 2024 — Bold Journey, October 2023 — CanvasRebel, January 2022 — The Municipal Art Society, March 2021 — Create! Magazine
March 2020 — Hyperallergic, October 2018 — Hyperallergic, March 2017 — Western Michigan University, January 2017 — Artist Daily
Events: 2023 — Gowanus Open Studios, Brooklyn, NY, 2022 — The Municipal Art Society of New York LIVE Zoom Gallery Talk [YouTube] with Chris Weller
2021 — The Glen Hansen Studio and Gallery “DRAW” Artist Talk Southold, NY, 2017 — Château d'Orquevaux Residency Orquevaux, FR
ARTIST STATEMENT
I make drawings to explore man’s relationship with the urban environment he has built, juxtaposed against his tenuous relationship with nature. I am intrigued by the unlikely beauty of urban decay and constantly search for images which convey this disparity both visually and conceptually. My goal is to create work which communicates the continual state of decay and reclamation by nature that I experience living in the city. For me, the urban landscape appears as an endless grey-scale, influencing me to work with charcoal on paper. The sooty feel of the medium conveys a sort of fading corrosion. I look for opposing themes of beauty and ugliness, despair and hope. The inconsistency of allowing our created urban environment to decay leaves us without a place to be in the world, alienated from both nature and ourselves. The precise, detailed technique emphasizes the contradiction between our place in nature and the disintegration and gradual decline in soundness of the place we have built. My current work has grown out of the diversity of my own experience. Having lived near wilderness, in rural, suburban, and urban areas I clearly see the struggle to find a sense of belonging in the city. I want to challenge the ideas of urban life being simply glamorous or decrepit and show the everyday, slow failings we constantly live with.
Website: www.nycdrawings.com
Instagram: @chriswellernyc