Week Fifteen
Christopher T Wood
Christopher T Wood, Daydrawing #200323, 2020. Graphite on paper, 9 x 12 inches. $250 (unframed)
CHRISTOPHER T WOOD
Christopher T Wood is new to Milwaukee and to the gallery. We presented an initial exhibition of his work called Day Drawing/Day Dreaming November 15 to January 18, 2020. Since January 1, 2016, Wood has made a daily 9 x 12 inch powdered graphite drawing. Wood considers the entirety of the on going Daydrawing project as one entity and, in this sense, the distribution of the drawings is also important. Anytime one is sold, its location is entered on a schematic map. What results is a "hyperobject " that “stretches through time, space, and beyond our capacity to observe.” There are now more than 1,600 drawings.
During the run of his show at PSG, Wood did a demonstration of graphite powder drawing by carefully laying out the implements and hand-made tools he uses in the process. When he sprayed the white paper with an initial puff of graphite, the fine powder magically floated onto the paper and spread like smoke or a delicate fog. There was an audible gasp in the room. I had never seen anyone work with this medium. Wood has become a master of it. The content of the work comes from current societal conditions, news accounts, the weather, his mood, astronomy, and any number of influences. The viewer can witness a progression of imagery through each month as these graceful compositions touch gently on environmental destruction and politics and then float again into a greater ethos of abstraction.
PSG on PAPER is a weekly
on-line drawing exhibition
April through July, 2020
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Next week we will launch a new online and physical exhibition. Stay tuned.
Portrait Society Gallery is pleased to present PSG on PAPER, an exhibition about drawing. Each week, the gallery presents the work of one artist.
All of the work can be purchased on the website's Store (above in menu). We will porch deliver anywhere in the MIlwaukee area free of charge.
Other participating artists in PSG on PAPER include: Emily Belknap (Week Ten), Steve Burnham (Week Nine), Skully Gustafson (Week One), Pat Hidson (Week Three), Nykoli Koslow (Week Two), Ashley Lusietto (Week Five), David Niec (Week Eleven), Rosemary Ollison (Week Seven), Amy O'Neill (Week Eight), Mark Ottens, Nirmal Raja (Week Twelve), Rafael Francisco Salas (Week Six), Della Wells, M.C. Winston (Week Four), Christopher T. Wood (Week Fifteen).
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Christopher T Wood, March, Daydrawing, 2020. A series of daily graphite powder drawings, 9 x 12 inches.
Detail, partial wall of Daydrawings, 2020.
BIO
Christopher T Wood is an artist, designer, and educator living in Milwaukee after spending significant periods in Philadelphia, Princeton, Chicago, and Pittsburgh. Over the last seven years, an attraction to impossible problems led him deep into a study of ‘Pataphysics,' Alfred Jarry’s science of imaginary solutions. With the intention of promoting long-term thinking in society, he encourages shifts in human awareness by peering into the supplementary universe and recording observations. Christopher earned an MFA in Painting from Northern Illinois University, and a BFA in Visual Communication Design/Illustration from University of Dayton. He is currently an Associate Lecturer at Peck School of the Arts and an Associate Lecturer at the School of Architecture and Urban Planning at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. He has attended residencies in Iceland, Ireland, and Maryland.
ARTISTS RESPOND TO CHRISTOPHER T WOOD'S WORK
Each week we ask other artists in the show to comment on the featured artist's work.
David Niec
Christopher's drawings often leave me asking questions about what is happening. There frequently are fragments from my own reality that I recognize. However, I'm not always sure about their specificity and orientation. I often feel as if I'm looking at a scene that is part of my world but yet otherworldly. They provide a sense of wonder.
The experience of seeing a number of his drawings at once in a peculiar way reminds me of experiences that I have with the night sky. The drawings have a tonality and an ethereal handling that suggest space, atmosphere and light. These qualities might at times suggest the nocturnal and the night sky but that's not what I'm referring to. There is a vastness to the night sky and all its happenings. It is very much beyond myself. Looking at a number of Christopher's drawings makes me think of this kind of vastness.
Tony Nickalls (PSG assistant)
At the recent PSG show of Christopher's work, he talked of the daily practice of making an image with graphite. He spoke of the individual images as part of a single work, even when they are distributed out to the world. In that context these works show a wide range of techniques of applying graphite resulting in some figurative parts to the work and some that are based on geometric shapes. What is clear is that the variety of applications are combined to achieve striking images that stand the test of prolonged observation and consideration of how they relate to the whole work of multiple pieces.
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