Bio
Painter and draftsman Christopher Gallego pairs intense observation with direct technique to bring simple everyday objects and spaces to life. Although he works quickly and mostly from life, he typically spends months or years on a single piece, describing his process as mostly “editing.”
Gallego’s tonal drawings are rendered on smooth white Arches watercolor paper with a combination of charcoal, vine charcoal, and graphite pencil, using a finger or cloth for blending and a razor blade for scraping out highlights. Influenced by the work of Giorgio Morandi, Edwin Dickinson, and Diego Velázquez, Gallego claims his true passion is not for the masters, but for the poetry of the visual world itself.
Gallego studied at the School of Visual Arts, the National Academy School of Fine Arts, and the Art Student’s League, all in New York. Exhibitions include OK Harris (NYC), Hirschl & Adler (NYC), the New Britain Museum of American Art (CT), the Arkansas Arts Center, and the Rockefeller Fund. He has received fellowships from the New York Foundation for the Arts, the Pollock-Krasner Foundation, the Marie Walsh Sharpe Foundation, the New Jersey State Council on the Arts, and the Rathbone Family of Art Historians. Currently, Gallego lives and works in Saratoga County, New York, and teaches Advanced Drawing & Painting at the Art Students League of New York.
Statement
“In 1995, I moved from a small one-bedroom apartment in New York City to a sprawling old Victorian home in north Jersey. The place had more space, light, and character than anywhere I’d lived before. Before unpacking, I stretched a few large canvases, and then some watercolor paper over plywood, with no particular composition in mind. The kitchen was large enough for a 4-foot drawing on an easel. Sunlight streaming through big windows made working there feel like plein air work. Shadows and lights shifted constantly and I chased them constantly, across walls, the floor, and the objects.
The old steam radiator drawing – one of a series of three – was actually done during the summer. Peeling paint and a brutal heat wave made it seem like the radiator was on full blast, even though it wasn’t. The odd shapes, textures, and spaces between the pipes were irresistible. Trying to capture multiple layers of paint flaking over an embossed surface seemed impossible at first. And then it didn’t.
I spent another eight years drawing and painting every corner of that home. The first projects, however, the two pieces in this exhibition, will always be favorites.”
