Painting

Contact Information

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Artist Statement

For a lot of years my work was thick with anxiety, but I started to feel overwhelmed by what I was making. I switched gears a number of times and even tried to stop all together.

As a result, my painting changed. This evolution was influenced directly by my experiences with Reiki, Affect Theory, reading Buddhism and experiments with mindfulness and non attachment.

The paintings are constructed primarily of two elements; a figure in some form and a dotted surface. The surfaces are covered freehand with dotted lines and shapes; flower, rosette, sun, teardrop and leaf, implying the particle and the etheric. For me the allusion is to matter and energy fields.

Artist Bio

Chris Curchin was born in Rochester, New York in 1960. He attended the University of the Arts in Philadelphia on a National Scholastics Scholarship earning a B.F.A. in film in 1982. He started to paint in 1985 and showed regularly at Highwire Gallery between 1992 and 1995.

A self-taught painter, he has worked as a waiter, a housepainter and as an assistant teacher at a school for children with cerebral palsy. He currently works at an arts-based preschool in Philadelphia.

Selected Exhibitions

Solo
1997
Borders Center City, Philadelphia, PA

1995
Portraits, Philadelphia Art Alliance Dining Room, Philadelphia, PA

Two – Person
1994
Solid World and Other Paintings, Highwire Gallery, Philadelphia, PA
With Jeanne Nugent

Group
2007
2nd Annual Juried Show, William Way, Philadelphia, PA
Juried Exhibition

2005
29th Annual Juried Show, Allentown Art Museum, Allentown, PA
Juried Exhibition

2004
A Sense of Place, Boulder Museum of Contemporary Art, Boulder, CO
Juried Exhibition

2002
Hanzpeak, Reiki School and Clinic, Philadelphia, PA

1999
Annual Exhibition, Cheltenham Center for the Arts, Philadelphia, PA
Juried Exhibition

1995
Borders Center City, Philadelphia, PA

4th Annual Exhibition, William Penn Charter School, Philadelphia, PA
Juried Exhibition
Jurors: Ivy Barsky and John Ollman

1993
Candle Opera: Installation by candle light, Highwire Gallery, Philadelphia, PA

Selective Vision, Highwire Gallery, Philadelphia, PA
Curator: Jeanne Nugent,

WaterIslandBridge, Multi-media installation and Outdoor Sculpture, Petty’s Island, Camden, NJ and Highwire Gallery, Philadelphia, PA

1992 – 1995
Highwire Collective Rotating Group Shows, Highwire Gallery, Philadelphia, PA

1992
Cathartic Fixations and Concrete Abstractions: 3 Artists, Highwire Gallery, Philadelphia, PA

Publications

2005
Artists of Northern Liberties 2005 Calendar (January)
Juried publication

Theater Design

1994
Set Design and Construction, “Gothic Tales,” Greg Giovanni, Painted Bride Art Center, Philadelphia, PA

1993
Set Design and Construction,”Napoleon Pullapart, Parts 5 & 5 1/2,” Big Mess Theater, Painted Bride Art Center, Philadelphia, PA

1992
Set Design, “Lucy: The Opera,” Big Mess Theater, Painted Bride, Philadelphia, PA