CHRIS UPHUES
“My work is inspired by a complex range of popular cultural references such as commercial advertising, cartoons, comics, and pop art, as well as the directness of outsider art. I'm a painter whose visual language incorporates all of the above, yet embodies a style that is uniquely my own. Each densely detailed composition explodes at the seams, as forms, characters, and objects fall onto one another in frenzied ecstasy. A congested world lives within the paintings in which every centimeter of real estate is taken.
With an emphasis on detail and obsessive precision, I attempt mind-bending preciseness with the paintbrush that defies logic. My surface is flat; a style utilizing characteristics of folk, pop, and visionary art, in which traditional rules of proportion and perspective are not employed. The paintings link to folk art in their ability to express cultural identity by conveying shared community values. In this case, it is the values of a whole generation of products, advertisements, and comics. My passion for pop imagery is apparent and feeds my entire practice. Overall my style is approachable and translates across generations. Inside this frenzied euphoria of “incidental graphics” – the smiley faces, hearts, flowers, patterns of puffy mushrooms, doe-eyed fruit, and rockets – pop references, past and present are democratized and made joyful.”
