Chris Ballantyne is an artist whose quiet but powerful paintings have been exhibited in a number of impressive solo and group exhibitions. Though his work is not intended to be a direct commentary on global warming, his poetic and sometimes quirky pieces invite us to contemplate the relationship between the man made – namely, buildings and suburban neighborhoods – and the natural and organic.
Artist’s Statement:
My work has often focused on vernacular architecture and observation of the American landscape. Growing up in a military family and moving to different parts of the country, there was a certain familiarity to the kinds of houses and neighborhoods. They were a series of suburban developments built in separate regions of the country, always on the outskirts of larger cities, at the exit ramps of interstate highways and all very similar in age and design. My own notions of space developed out of this cultural landscape, which was striving for an individual sense of personal space, was consciously economic and was somewhere between urban and rural. Most of my works involve combinations of various places, drawn from memory. As well, my own interests in skateboarding and surfing altered how I saw the use of these structures—ranging from empty pools and sidewalk curbs to ocean jetties—in a way that tied in to my sense of push-and-pull between culture and nature. I use paintings, drawings and installations as my primary modes of expression, often depicting, through aerial views, familiar yet strangely unpopulated urban and suburban environments.