Contact | Statement | Bio

Email: ca--AT--chrisashley--DOT--net

Most of the recent paintings and drawings are multi-part works. A single painted work consists of four panels. A single album of drawings consists of five drawings. When I make these I am looking for an interplay and connection between these separates parts, and an integration of parts into a whole.

Recent work is often named after places. French Trail is a steep trail near where I live in Oakland, CA that goes through at least three micro-climates, ending in a large stand of second generation redwoods. Towards Crossmaglen specifies the area between Dundalk, Ireland and Crossmaglen, Northern Ireland in County Armagh from where my wife’s family originates. Limantour is a beach that separates an estuary from Drake’s Bay in West Marin. Chimney Rock is a butte at the end of a short peninsula in West Marin that overlooks Drake’s Bay. Jersey refers to a stretch of land beside the train tracks that lead to Newark Airport in New Jersey. And so on. Sometimes I don’t’ want to identify a work’s origin, so it remains untitled. While I encourage the place associations, I don’t think the associations remain strictly with these places.

Several sets of drawings are titled Qinglü (Blue & Green). Qinglü (pronounced ching-lew; also called qinglübai or qinglü shanshui) is a style of Chinese blue and green landscape painting made principally during the Sui (581-618) and Tang (618-907) dynasties. A rich and powerful color effect was achieved using two mineral colors— azurite blue and malachite green. I have recently used this palette extensively.

The practice of aggregating multiple pieces into single works is influenced by the serial and thematic nature of the HTML drawings made daily for my weblog (http://chrisashley.net/weblog), and also by, for example: 17th century Chinese painter Shitao's albums of paintings; the predella of 14th and 15th century Italian and Northern European paintings; Giotto's frescos in the Scrovegni Chapel in Padua; Barnett Newman's 18 Cantos and The Stations of the Cross; James Joyce’s Dubliners, poet Lyn Hejinian's My Life; Bach’s Six Cello Suites, and the long playing (LP) rock and roll records of the 60's and 70's, the songs on which were meant to be listened to in order, with sides one and two each a significant half of a single body of work.

I often think of these paintings and drawings as figurative. They are, loosely speaking, about the figure in an environment, and refer to the experience of internal and external space. In my current work the image: is direct and light (i.e., not overworked); read as having both ambiguous and specific space; between abstraction and representation; uses a variety of line, marks, and images; and uses color found somewhere between nature and technology.

Biography

o Born Hayward, California
o BA, Fine Arts, California State University, Hayward
o Multiple Subject Teaching Credential, California State University, Hayward
o MS, Educational Leadership (coursework complete) Dominican University, San Rafael, California
o Lives and works in Oakland and Berkeley, California

Exhibitions, Presentations, Publications

2007
o “B I T M A P: as good as new”, vertexList, Brooklyn
o “Chris Ashley: WYSIWYG” (solo: installations of inkjet prints of HTML drawings), Chambers Gallery, Portland Oregon
o “Chris Ashley: Five Pieces” - (solo: installations of inkjet prints of HTML drawings), Gree Line Projects, Philadelphia
o “Luxe, Calme et Volupté” - curated by Joanne Mattera, Marcia Wood Gallery, Atlanta
o “AltGeo: loosened structures for line and color”, curated by Douglas Witmer, Greenline Projects, Philadephia, Pennsylvania
o “Across the Borderline”, a drawing installation by Chris Ashley and Douglas Witmer, Rike Gallery University of Dayton, Ohio

2006
o “Suitcase” (small works by sixteen international artists), Bus Dori, October 2006, Tokyo Japan
o “Six Paintings,” 2195 Hearst, University of California, Berkeley, CA (November 2005)
o “Pulse 2006 Bienalle,” 1708 Gallery, Richmond, VA

2005
o “Blogging and the Arts,” New Museum of Contemporary Art, New York, (http://rhizome.org/events/blogging_and_the_arts/)
o “99 mal 21 mal 21,” Kammerhofgalerie Der Stadt Gmunden, Austria
o “we-blog with abe linkoln, jimpunk, Chris Ashley and Tom Moody,” -empyre- mailing list month-long guest panelist
Announcement: (http://rhizome.org/thread.rhiz?thread=17519&page=1)
Archive: (https://mail.cofa.unsw.edu.au/pipermail/empyre/2005-June/date.html)
A series of daily HTML drawings was produced in response to mailing list dialog
(http://chrisashley.net/resources/pages/2005June/2005_06EmpyreSeries.html)
o “The Urban Canvas,” Gallery Siano, Philadelphia, PA
o 15th Anniversary exhibition of Edition S.p.N.LAUB, Stifter Haus, Linz Austria
o edition S.p.N.LAUB 15th Anniversary Anthology
( http://www.advancedpoetx.com/15%20HTML/ee15index.html)
o Kunst.Messe.Linz, o.oe.Landesgalerie/Landesmuseum, Linz, Austria

2004
o "Christopher Ashley: HTML Drawings," ISBN (3-901102-22-1), edition S.p.N.LAUB, Rottenegg, Austria
o September 2004: “By Special Request,” Floppyswop
(http://www.floppyswop.co.uk/files/media/20050303SpecialRequest-14-12-16-20.htm)

2003-present
o “Look, See,” ongoing project of HTML drawings, writing about art, and studio documentation
(http://chrisashley.net/weblog)

Bibliography

Recent Writings about Chris Ashley
(See http://www.chrisashley.net/weblog/archives/cat_art_writing.html)

o Manik: They Are What They Are & Layers, 2005
o James Harris: Singing the Body Electric, 2004
o George Lawson: Chris Ashley's HTML Drawings, 2004

Recent Writing by Chris Ashley
(See http://www.chrisashley.net/weblog/archives/cat_art_writing.html)

o Green is Good (Alan Ebnother), 2007Sept
o Sandi Miot's Recent Paintings, 2007July
o Gee's Bend Quilts, 2007Jan
o Fernando Botero's Abu Ghraib Paintings at UC Berkeley, 2007Jan
o Morandi's "Bottiglie e fruttiera", 2006Dec
o Don Voisine: R-Value at Abaton Garage, 2006Oct
o Mel Prest: Alignments, 2006Jun
o Pete Baldes: Hypertemps, 2006Jun
o Denis Peterson: Don't Shed No Tears, 2006Jun
o Minus Space interview with Tilman Hoepfl, 2006June
o Artists Interview Artists: Michael Grayeagle, 2006May
o Joanne Mattera's Encaustic Paintings, 2006Apr
o Gainsborough's Brushstrokes, 2006Apr
o Minus Space interview with Daniel Göttin, 2006Mar
o Introducing... Joe McKay (NYFA Current), 2006Feb
o In the San Francisco Galleries (after Donald Judd), 2006Feb
o Tim Schwartz: Untitled (Four Ways), 2006Jan
o Laurie Reid at Gallery Joe, 2005Oct/Dec
o Minus Space interview with Douglas Witmer, 2005Dec
o Fernando Colón González at Larry Becker, 2005Nov
o Nancy White at Takada Gallery, 2005Oct
o Teresita Fernández at the Fabric Workshop, 2005Oct
o Raymond Saunders at Stephen Wirtz, 2005Oct
o “The Hands in Manet's "The Dead Christ and the Angels", October 2005
o “Interview with Vincent Romaniello, September 2005
o “Richard Schur’s Untitled,” September 2005
o “Minus Space Interview with Steve Karlik,” September 2005
o “Barnett Newman’s Concord,” August 2005
o “De Kooning’s Lobster Woman,” August 2005
o “Minus Space Interview with Sharon Brant,” June 2005
o “Thomas Gainsborough: How Modern?” May 2005
o “Newman and Warhol: Duet at the Met,” May 2005
o Outline for talk at “Blogging and the Arts Panel,” May 2005
o “Minus Space Interview with Alan Ebnother,” April 2005
o “Notes on Kathryn Van Dyke: Map of Possibilities,” April 2005
o “Amy Rathbone: probably raw", March 2005
o “Cezanne's Trees and House: Mirror and Skull,” February 2005
o “Phil Sims' Paintings: A Problem of Scale,” January 2005
o “Agnes Martin, 1912-2004,” December 2004
o “About a leaf from Tao-chi's Album for Taoist Yü,” December 2004
o “Byron Kim: At the Threshold of Painting?” December 2004
o “Richard Schur's Paintings: Stacked, Packed, and Whacked,” November 2004
o “Seeing the Hovering Image: Joseph Hughes' Recent Paintings,” October 2004
o “Multi-Panel Paintings,” September 2004
o “Painting Conveys So Much Spirit: George Lawson's San Cai Paintings,” August 2004
o “Visual Problems & Solutions,” May 2004
(See http://www.chrisashley.net/weblog/archives/cat_art_writing.html)

Listings

o artnews.info
o MinusSpace.com
o Rhizome.org
o Geoform.net

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