Christine Gray
Christine Gray is a painter of scenes whose basis are her own carefully constructed 3-dimensional tableaus comprised of unlikely and unheroic materials which she duplicates two-dimensionally using oil and pigment applied with brush to surface. Gray’s application unconventionally incorporates and combines the painting techniques of tromp l’oeil and impasto with expressionistic veils, drips, and splatters of paint. She purposely references the work of 19th Century American stylistic movements The Hudson River School and Luminism whose practitioners would physically travel to extraordinary and extreme natural environments and return to their studios with sketches and memories to synthesize painted compositions characterized by an attention to detail and an emphasis upon light as spiritual vision. However, Gray’s work is drawn directly from reality, not from memory or fantasy; she paints real things; but their construction and painted context blur the lines between reality and fiction. The objects Gray creates assume a mythical significance in their painted replication, an elevation of their association to both the natural world and our built environment. Gray’s exhibition title “Gazer” refers to the significance of sight translated through circumstance, the filtering of the sense of vision, what is watched and seen, through the landscape of the mind.
r. grover 08/09/07.
Christine Gray is a native of Austin, Texas. She studied at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, received a BFA from the University of Texas, and an MFA from the University of California, Santa Barbara. Recent awards include an upcoming Jentel Foundation Residency, 2010, a Bemis Center for the Arts Residency, current 2009; a Golden Foundation Residency, 2009; and a 7 Below Arts Initiative Residency, 2009. Christine Gray serves on the faculty of the School of Painting and Printmaking, Virginia Commonwealth University, Richmond, VA. Rare Gallery, NYC, and Project 4 Gallery, Washington, DC currently represent Gray’s work. Gray’s research and studio work towards the conception and execution of this exhibition is partially funded by grants from Virginia Commonwealth University.
Ever and Ever Eyes, 2008
