Christopher Pelley

Cinquanta'
2006, Oil on linen
46" x 46" inches
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Born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania to Canadian parents, raised in New England, lived in Arizona, traveled extensively across Europe, India and Mexico and now living in New York City, Christopher Pelley’s paintings reflect his diverse cultural and geographic experiences. “Richly painted and abundant with metaphoric imagery the works are not only aesthetically pleasing but intellectually complex” states Julie Sasse, curator of Modern & Contemporary Art at the Tucson Museum of Art. Critic Joyce Korotkin adds “[Pelley] forces the past and present to co-exist on the same plane echoing the manner in which successive civilizations rise and fall on top of one another.”

Sa Poitrine
2005, Oil on linen
52" x 64" inches

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His approach to the craft of painting is traditional; linen or canvas is stretched over supports, sized with rabbit skin glue and primed with paste that at one time would have been made of lead and linseed oil, but is now made from the less toxic titanium dioxide. The layers of paint are built up over time with glazes, impastos and scumbles. Sometimes the surface is sanded down to reveal a glimpse of what is underneath or simply to abrade the image.

It might be difficult to categorize Pelley’s work into a specific genre. He is a realist at heart, capable of rendering subjects with the deftness of an old master, but he also has an eye for the purely abstract. His work has been acquired by a growing number of public and private collections including the Austin Museum of Art in Austin, Texas, The Mint Museum of Art in Charlotte, North Carolina and the Hechinger Collection in Washington, DC.