| Christopher
Romer’s wooden wall pieces were recently
hailed as the “star of the show” by John Hazlehurst
of the Colorado Springs Independent. Playfully navigating
the intersection of fine art and builder’s craft,
Romer’s new body of work shines even more brightly
than his previous installation. Romer creates sculpture
that, on one hand, recalls aspects of carpentry, and on
the other, reveals the material’s natural source.
Elements of Romer’s pieces evoke the colored enamel
trim one might find around the apartment’s bathroom
doorway or on mom’s old kitchen table. At the same
time, the surface patinas of the pieces suggest patterns
of animal skins, plumage, marbled stone or flesh. The construction,
manipulation and surface treatment of these fabricated wooden
forms creates singular and intensely autonomous wooden pieces,
which are actually conceived to read more powerfully when
encountered in groupings of their kin. The arrangements
and ensuing rapport between the pieces and viewers produces
a palpable resonance that is unmistakable. Romer explains,
“In my work, these groupings come to life as abstracted
landscapes or environments, ecosystems, and analogous corporal
and strange worlds through and amongst which the viewer
passes.”
Romer received his MFA from the School of
the Art Institute of Chicago and has studied at Dusseldorf
Kunstakademie in Germany, Chelsea College of Art in London.
Currently, Romer is on the faculty of the Sculpture Department
at the Rhode Island School of Design. He has exhibited widely
in the US and England, including Surface Tension: Sculpture
by Christopher Romer at Chicago Cultural Center in Chicago,
IL and Timber on the Floor, Songbirds in the Rafters at
Delaware Center for the Contemporary Arts. Romer is also
a two-time recipient of the Pollack-Krasner Foundation Grant
as well as a Fulbright-Hays Fellowship and he has participated
in residencies at Yaddo, MacDowell Colony, the Fine Arts
Work Center, the Bemis Center for Contemporary Arts and
the Sculpture Space amongst others. For more information
on the artist please visit www.christopherromer.com |
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