New Exhibit
Artist: Chris Sharp
Location: Iron Gallery at UW Tacoma, 1742 Pacific Avenue Exhibition Dates: September 18 - October 14, 2008

Please join us on Thursday September 18th for the opening reception with the artist from 5 to 8pm, as part of Tacoma’s Third Thursday Art Walk.

Chris’ Statement:

“I like the idea of practice, and living a lifestyle, rather than a strict authorship and precise execution. The idea of a master is unappealing and mechanical. It seems arrogant and soulless. For me a painting isn’t a real painting if it happens on the first try. I like the a idea of failures all culminating in tandem to a successful painting. That’s what my paintings are.

Like all art, mine is a series of disclosures and concealment. It’s about me. It’s about everything and everyone. There is a real autobiographical and popular culture aspect that is a point of departure for me- but once painted and out of the studio the work seems more distant than that. I make free associations with words and objects in a painting. I become a formalist. I paint over things. I leave things alone, and often times I just start over, leaving enough to show some signs of a history.

Once a painting is done the idea of authorship only lasts for a moment or two, and then it’s almost as if I’m seeing the work for the first time. It’s these lucid associations and covered pictures that I feel are the most ambiguous and compelling. They are the only thing that motivates me.”

Melissa Moffett, Community Developer
Tacoma School of the Arts