Contact Information
Please contact artist for purchases, commissions, etc.
Painting
Artist's Biography
Chris Curchin attended the Philadelphia College of Art, now University of the Arts on a National Scholastics Scholarship, studying film in an experimental film program.He showed regularly at Highwire Gallery co-op in the 1990's and has exhibited work at the Allentown Art Museum, Delaware County Community College, William Way Center among others. A self-taught painter, he currently works at an arts-based preschool in Philadelphia.
Artist's Statement
I never studied painting formally and it was few years after I began to experiment with it in 1985 that I began to take it more seriously. When I first started For some years my work was thick with anxiety. I often felt overwhelmed by what I was making. Paintings, often faces, seemed to stare back at me. I came to want to escape from the way they looked at me.
I switched gears a number of times, delving into the non representational for a time and I even tried to stop painting all together but that proved to be futile. Around that time, after working on a Moroccan inspired decorative painting job, I began playing with dotted designs on heads and faces: the surfaces covered freehand with dots and dotted designs, lines and shapes. Flower, rosette, sun, teardrop and leaf: for me implying the particle and the etheric. Over the years my painting evolved, influenced very much by experiences with Reiki, Affect Theory, and meditation.
Recently I have been exploring the all-over background of lines and dots with figures or multiple figures as a focus and also close ups of eyes and paring them together.
For me it is a playful way to express an allusion to matter and energy fields and as counterpoint to the drama of the figures themselves.
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
2013
215/620 Emerging Regional Artists, Delaware Center for the Contemporary Arts, Wilmington, DE
Juror: Donald Kuspit
Member Exhibition: InLiquid, PPAC, Second State, at Ice Box Project Space and Grey Area, Crane Arts Building, Philadelphia, PA
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
Professional Experience
2008 - present
Teacher/Manager, AKWD Preschool, Philadelphia, PA
1999 - 2008
Assistant Teacher, HMS School for Children With Cerebral Palsy
1978 - 1999
Various Restaurants and House Painting
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
Education
1982
University of the Arts(formerly Philadelphia College of Art), Philadelphia, PA
BFA, Film/Animation