WHEN: August 20 through September 2
WHERE: A.P.E. Ltd. Gallery, 126 Main St, Northampton, MA 01060
Living and working in industrial spaces of South Boston and Holyoke, Massachusetts led Chris Serra to explore warehouses and waterfront alleyways and sparked a fascination with the inherent beauty of rundown factory buildings, broken machines and rusted mechanisms. Combining materials, the artist thinks about how their disparate characteristics will play against or act on each other: oxidized steel, bleeding into plaster or a delicate mylar form floating in cement.
In this project, Serra will exhibit some of this work in conjunction with his sketchbooks – the rough “blueprints” for his sculptures. An important part of his process, these books reveal connections and metamorphoses between figurative and nonrepresentational images. Notes and instructions to the artist accompany certain sketches. These guidelines become beneficial when deciding how a drawn line can transform into a three dimensional element.
Chris Serra began his career as an illustrator for The Union News in Springfield. After leaving the paper he became a regular contributor to the New York Times Book Review, under the art direction of renowned graphic designer and author, Steven Heller. Chris’ conceptual graphic work frequently appears in many publications. Parallel to this pursuit, he has been drawing, painting and making sculptural works for decades. When combining materials, the artist considers how their disparate characteristics will play against or act on each other - oxidized steel, bleeding into plaster or a delicate mylar form floating in cement. Whether making marks on paper, pouring cement, welding steel or gluing mylar shapes together, the aim is the same - to explore more deeply. Chris is a member of the Oxbow Gallery in Northampton.
