Meet Chris Trueman

Today we’d like to introduce you to Chris Trueman.

Every artist has a unique story. Can you briefly walk us through yours?
I’ve been making art since I was a teenager. When I was 17 I attended a “Young Artist Program” at the San Francisco Art Institute (SFAI) which got me really excited to pursue art as a career. A few years later I returned to SFAI to earn my BFA in Painting and Digital Media. After graduating I moved around a bit and did some traveling and after a few years I applied to Claremont Graduate University and was accepted to their MFA program which is what brought me to Southern California. I graduated in 2010 and found a studio shortly after and have been making and showing work in Los Angeles, around the US and abroad since then.

Please tell us about your art.
I make large acrylic gestural abstract paintings. Recently I have been making them on Yupo Paper which is a synthetic paper. The process I have developed involves a lot of putting paint on and then removing the paint, either by squeegee or by washing off or at times with Acetone. I often tell people it is two steps forward one step back method and the result are a painting that appears to be very physical, but the paint is relatively thinly applied and almost appears to be a digital print or photograph of a painting. I’ve started calling them de-materialized paintings. I’m thinking a lot about the digital world we live in and how most images we see are mediated through screens. Often, we believe we have seen an event or an object because we have seen images or posts of the object, but those impressions are removed from context and without scale, even if you can get a sense for the scale, you can’t truly get a sense of what you are looking at and, in this scenario,, it would only be the one sense that describes the experience. What does it mean to make paintings and objects in a world where they will inevitably be seen without the original physicality? I’m using the paintings to talk about how many experiences are changing. For better and worse, on one hand I get to see all kinds of interesting things from all over the world, on the other I might forgo a unique experience having felt that I got the gist of it through my phone. I hope my paintings cause pause, that people think about what they are seeing and how it is made and what the implications are for the themes I am exploring.

Given everything that is going on in the world today, do you think the role of artists has changed? How do local, national or international events and issues affect your art?
I think the way that we exchange ideas and find individuals who are likeminded is changing. I regularly exchange ideas with artists internationally and the gallery that represents my work in Brisbane, AUS (TWFINEART) has put together a great painting program with artists from East Coast, West Coast and some in between as well as Europe and some Australian artists. I’ve communicated with many of them and I find that my peer group is not as attached to geography as perhaps it once was. I think more than ever artists have to assert their place in the world. Art and culture has a significant impact in the way that citizens think and act and many people just don’t have the exposure to art that we would expect. I think building community on a local level is really important and supporting artists and the arts in general is really important and on a larger scale I think we can have a potent voice and vision for culture as well as politically. In my own work I am affected primarily by the way that we are receiving information and the degree to which that information; whether news, media images, social media posts are in part or completely manufactured and/or falsified. As a population our “literacy” for understanding and scrutinizing what we see is falling behind the ability to create believably false narratives and the images that accompany those. As a visual artist I see a lot of territory to explore and contribute to a larger conversation about these ideas.

How or where can people see your work? How can people support your work?
I exhibit fairly regularly in and around LA, I am represented by Edward Cella Art and Architecture in Culver City and you can take a peek at what I am up to on my Instagram feed @truemanchris or website: www.christrueman.com but of course If you have a chance they are worth seeing in person.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.christrueman.com
• Email: [email protected]
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/truemanchris/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/trueman.chris

Image Credit:
Tove Langridge and Chris Trueman

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