Chris Schneider

Sitting in Parking Space (2015).

My work examines contrasting relational concepts through the visual language of formalism. Dichotomous relationships drive my aesthetic and conceptual interests: subtle distinctions between exterior and interior spaces, material contrasts between urbanism and nature, the ephemeral physicality of iconographic vocabulary... My pieces attempt to expose these nuanced relationships.

In plain English, most of my work is a study of how everyday spaces like parking lots, sidewalks, and streets present interesting formal relationships visually and in space. In fine arts, formalism is a movement and philosophy concerned with how the elements of an artwork relate to each other in a piece. Additionally, formalism places more importance on these elements and the materials used over the subject matter itself. I consider myself a formalist artist because my main focus is on the relationships of materials used in space. Though I use concept as a means to further my investigations, the work is still primarily about form, space, and materiality.

You can check out my fine arts CV here.

Online Gallery Exhibition, May 2021.

My dear friend Ashley over at The Anxious Tomato hosted an online retrospective exhibition of my 2015 work, namely S|P|A|C|E|S and Exterior Objects.

As I haven't been actively making art since 2017, the exhibition displayed the images you can see below and included an interactive artist's talk with founders Ashley and Kate about the work and concepts. You can watch the interview below:

Exhibition Statement, 2015.

This body of work investigates the relationship between personal and public spaces and the systems organizing spatial distribution.

The destructive transformation of domestic materials re-contextualizes them as simply material; similarly, the re-presentation of ubiquitous spatial markers challenges the existing allocation and management of space.

Proportionate representations of road signs and markings presented in a neutral environment draw attention to the scale and instructive quality of objects all but ignored in their conventional locations.

The juxtaposition of carpeting, constructive woods, and household paints allows for the comparison between the spatial management of outdoor and indoor environments, suggesting a reconsideration of the everyday spaces we take for granted.

Artist Commentary, 2017.

This series of work explored formalist spatial compositions through street motifs. The visual language developed in this series has informed much of the work that I am still elaborating on today.

Home and street materials were juxtaposed in an exploratory manner in attempts to remove familiarity from commonplace objects.

The dichotomous relationship between “interior” and “exterior” spaces defined a thematic tension between the roles of these visual objects as real objects and psychological symbols.