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Christopher Pelley

Christopher Pelley (Born 1955) is active/lives in New York.  Christopher Pelley is known for Landscape, non-objective, still-life painting.

Biography photo for Christopher Pelley
Christopher Pelley was born 1955 in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, USA, grew up in New England and studied painting with Jerome Witkin at Syracuse University, Syracuse, New York. He completed his undergraduate degree at Arizona State University where he was awarded his BFA in painting and art history Summa Cum Laude.

He has traveled extensively in Europe, India, North Africa, Mexico and most recently, China. His paintings reflect these diverse cultural and geographic experiences. It might be difficult to categorize Pelley's work into a specific genre. Labeled as a post-modernist, he is a realist at heart, capable of rendering objects with the deftness of an Old Master, but he also has an eye for the purely abstract. His paintings have been in noted museum surveys (Magic Realism, Southern Alleghenies Museum of Art, Loretto, Pennsylvania, Landscape in the Age of Anxiety, Cleveland Center for Contemporary Art, Cleveland, Ohio, and The Current Landscape, Felicita Foundation f   ...  [Displaying 1000 of 7894 characters.]  Artist bio

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Facts about Christopher Pelley

   Christopher Pelley  Born:  1955 - Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
Known for:  Landscape, non-objective, still-life painting

Biography from Larsen Gallery

Christopher Pelley was born 1955 in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, USA, grew up in New England and studied painting with Jerome Witkin at Syracuse University, Syracuse, New York. He completed his undergraduate degree at Arizona State University where he was awarded his BFA in painting and art history Summa Cum Laude.

He has traveled extensively in Europe, India, North Africa, Mexico and most recently, China. His paintings reflect these diverse cultural and geographic experiences. It might be difficult to categorize Pelley's work into a specific genre. Labeled as a post-modernist, he is a realist at heart, capable of rendering objects with the deftness of an Old Master, but he also has an eye for the purely abstract. His paintings have been in noted museum surveys (Magic Realism, Southern Alleghenies Museum of Art, Loretto, Pennsylvania, Landscape in the Age of Anxiety, Cleveland Center for Contemporary Art, Cleveland, Ohio, and The Current Landscape, Felicita Foundation for the Arts, Escondido, California). His work has been acquired by a number of public and private collections including The Austin Museum of Art in Austin, Texas, The Mint Museum of Art in Charlotte, North Carolina and the Hechinger Collection in Washington, DC. Mr Pelley is represented by galleries in Chicago, Denver, Scottsdale, Arizona and Ontario, Canada. He currently lives and works in New York City.

ARTIST STATEMENT

I am a visual artist in the traditional sense. I work primarily with oil on canvas, combining imagery taken from the antique and imagery painted from direct observation with passages of lush abstract paint which defines the ground. I use these post-modernist conceits, visual metaphors and enigmatic narratives to explore my inner psyche - that space between myth and memory, between the heroic and the quotidian. I try to cloak my persona and my personal epiphanies with the vocabulary of western art history.

The paintings are built up in layers over time both revealing and concealing imagery. With the images chosen, both revealed and concealed, I try to connect to that larger world and the social issues that permeate it: surveillance, environmental degradation, gender and disease. These issues evolve and remain unresolved as every epoch tries to grapple with them through religion, myth and tradition. My voice is just one more to be added to the cacophony.

EDUCATION
Syracuse University, Syracuse, NY
Arizona State University, Tempe, AZ
BFA summa cum laude

SELECTED SOLO EXHIBITIONS
2008 Deception of Desire, Larsen Gallery, Scottsdale, AZ
2007 Here and There, Ogilvie Pertl Gallery, Chicago, IL
2005 Apocrypha, Ogilvie Pertl Gallery, Chicago, IL
Lexicon, Abbozzo Gallery, Oakville, ON
Recurrent Themes, Larsen Gallery, Scottsdale, AZ
2004 Journeys (to places I've never seen), The Cultural Exchange Gallery, Scottsdale, AZ
2003 Chinoiserie, Robischon Gallery, Denver, CO
2002 Ancient Histories, West Valley Art Museum, Surprise, AZ
2001 Ancient Histories, The Cultural Exchange Gallery, Scottsdale, AZ
2000 The Times of the Day, The Cultural Exchange Gallery, Scottsdale, AZ
Labyrinthine, Visual Arts Gallery, County College of Morris, Randolph, NJ
1999 Greco/Roman, Monique Goldstrom Gallery, New York, NY
Still Life, Abbozzo Gallery, Oakville, ON
1997 From Arcadia to Zeuxis, Arts in the Academy, The National Academy of Sciences, Washington, DC
Pentimentos, The Cultural Exchange, Scottsdale, AZ
1993 Small Constructed Narratives, Bentley Gallery, Scottsdale, AZ
1989 Paintings, Works on Paper, Marilyn Butler Fine Art, Scottsdale, AZ
1988 Allegory, Marilyn Butler Fine Art, Scottsdale, AZ
1987 Narrative Paintings, Saxon Lee Gallery, Los Angeles, CA
1986 Paintings / Constructions, Marilyn Butler Fine Art, Scottsdale, AZ


SELECTED GROUP EXHIBITIONS
2006 Do It Yourself: The Art of Tools, Phoenix Airport Museum, Phoenix AZ
Viewing Room: Paintings by David Kroll, Christopher Pelley and Jamie Brunson,
Robischon Gallery, Denver, CO
Focus, Larsen Gallery, Scottsdale, AZ
2004 Small Wonders, Ogilvie Pertl Gallery, Chicago, IL
2003 Dichotomies, Robischon Gallery, Denver, CO
Water, Abbozzo Gallery, Oakville, ON
1999 Magic Realism, Southern Alleghenies Museum of Art, Loretto, PA (catalogue)
1998 Hindsight, Joseph Gross Gallery, University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ
1997 Tools as Art: Selections from the Hechinger Collection, National Building Museum, Washington, DC
1995 Incontro / Encounter, Tribeca 148 Gallery, New York, NY
Buoys: Marking the Place, Renegade Spaces Exhibition, curated by Bill Bace, New York, NY
(catalogue)
1994 Italy-America, Castello di Ducale, Crecchio, Italy (catalogue)
Reality and Beyond, BEMIS Center for Contemporary Art, Omaha, NE
10x10: Ten Dealers pick 10 Artists, Tribeca 148 Gallery, New York, NY
Varied Visions, Interpretations of the Landscape, Virginia Miller Gallery, Coral Gables, FL
1993 Art of the Spirit, The Center for Transcultural Exchange, New York, NY
1990 Monotypes from the Sharokh Rezvani Workshop, Nelson Fine Arts Center, Arizona State University
Tempe, AZ
Musical Instruments in Art, Scottsdale Center for the Arts, Scottsdale, AZ
1989 Tools, San Francisco Airports Commission Exhibition Program, San Francisco, CA (catalogue)
1988 Food in Art, Arizona Museum for Youth, Mesa, AZ
1987 The Current Landscape, Felicita Foundation for the Arts, Escondido, CA (catalogue)

1986 Landscape in the Age of Anxiety, Lehman College Art Gallery, The City University of New York,
The Bronx, NY, and The Cleveland Center for Contemporary Art, Cleveland, OH (catalogue)
1985 The Romantic Landscape, Monique Knowlton Gallery, New York, NY
Southwest '85, Museum of Fine Arts, Santa Fe, NM
New Masks for Modern Living - an Invitational, Phoenix Art Museum, Phoenix, AZ

SELECTED PUBLICATIONS
2003 Denver Westword, April 10, Michael Paglia, exhibition review
Oakville Beaver, July 11, Craig MacBride, exhibition review, photo
2002 Philadelphia Inquirer, March 12, Edward Owen, exhibition review
Amarillo Globe News, April 12, Alan J Heavens, exhibition review, photo
Arizona Republic, June 23, John Carlos Villani, exhibition review, photo
2000 Santa Fean, January, Jeanette Alt, article, photo
1999 N Y Arts, Vol 4, #12, Joyce Korotkin, article
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, August 21, Mary Thomas, exhibition review
Cover, Vol 13, #2, Joyce Korotkin, exhibition review, photo
1998 M The New York Art World, December, Joyce Korotkin, article
1994 Omaha World-Herald, September 16, Kyle Macmillan, exhibition review, photo
1992 Arizona Republic, January 10, Richard Nilsen, exhibition review
1988 Scottsdale Daily Progress, November 23, Joe Young, exhibition review, photo
Arizona Republic, December 1, Richard Nilsen, exhibition review, photo
1986 Los Angeles Times, February 27, Colin Gardner, exhibition review
San Diego Union, October 8, Robert Pincus, exhibition review
Los Angeles Times, October 16, Leah Ollman, exhibition review
1987 Art Week, January 25, Victoria Beaudin, exhibition review, photo
Phoenix Gazette, January 15, David Eskes, article, photo
1985 Art in America, September, David Bell, exhibition review, photo


SELECTED COLLECTIONS
American Express Corporation, New York, NY
Arizona State University Art Collections, Tempe, AZ
Austin Museum of Art, Austin, TX
The Hechinger Collection, Washington, DC
McDonalds Corporation, Oakbrook, IL
Mint Museum of Art, Charlotte, NC
Progressive Corporation, Cleveland, OH
Southern Alleghenies Museum of Art, Loretto, PA


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