Bio:

Chris Weller (b. 1962, Canadian/American) is a New York-based artist whose hyper realistic charcoal drawings represent both the well-known and underground icons of the city. “I create work which communicates the continual state of urban decay and its reclamation by nature,” she has said. Pulling away from the messy and smeary norms of charcoal, Chris redefines the medium in her clean sharp narratives. Her work has been described as “encapsulating awe and visual complexity.” With her current architectural works, Chris conveys the sense of space and atmosphere one feels in the presence of the manmade, and with her portraiture, she captures a slice in time emphasizing beauty in every passing moment.

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 a grey-scale. Because of this absence of color, I have chosen to work primarily 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. My 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. I want to create a palpable atmosphere in which the observer can get lost.

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.

www.nycdrawings.com