Christopher Griffith

Lives and works in Stuyvesant, NY, USA

Artist statement

FOURPLAY: Artist statement. 2021 Words. They have weight, multiple meanings and many interpretations to individual definitions. Context, tone and history are paramount in the understanding of any word. In the zeitgeist of social media, words have become increasingly impactful as any person with a device can now make far reaching commentaries which were all but impossible 20 years ago. Some use words for the betterment of society, some for the worse and even those distinctions are commonly open to interpretation. What is certain is that the use of words and their impact on society has never been greater, nor as far reaching. Words do matter. My process has always focused on simplicity. Initially in photography and now in painting, my work has always employed varied forms of graphic minimalism in a desire to communicate ideas in the most reductive form. I am overly sensitive to noise. It makes me uncomfortable and irritable. The removal of noise, be it auditory or visual, is a defining aspect of my personality which dictates the way I work and the artwork that I create. In recent years my work has primarily focused on communication through language. I have increasingly used words or the representation of words to create commentary that is at times contentious (IN MEMORIAM, 2018), humorous (POP LIFE, 2019), or topical (HOBO GLYPH, 2020) and I hope mostly poignant. FOURPLAY combines my impulse towards graphic minimalism with the use of words to create a dialogue, albeit with a...

Artwork