January 4 - March 2, 2024Elizabeth Leach Gallery is excited to announce its first solo exhibition with Chris Chandler entitled Elemental Forms. Chandler’s geometric, monotype relief prints feature bold Bauhaus style compositions combined with experimental layering.
Utilizing a rare Vandercook proofing press, Chandler investigates shape and color in his work, often layering both image and process for a balance between formalism and improvisation. Chandler transposes letters, words, and shapes into abstracted assemblies of laminated prints. His practice of rearranging, layering and tearing his prints reflects his appeal to the analog and endless combinations possible through the printmaking processes. Chandler’s print works communicate an admiration for the Bauhaus and Constructivist movements with nods to the origins of graphic design and typography.
Chandler has become intimately familiar with typography and the historical process of creating letter and font styles. Utilizing this printing technique to spell out a song title or word he then fractures the font pieces into geometric shapes, reconfiguring them to create a graphic effect. Chandler also uses geometric forms to communicate music and sound elements such as drum beats, musical fades and more. These pieces may focus on a single sound or capture an entire song within one composition.
Throughout all the work for Elemental Forms, Chandler’s methodology is driven by a delicate layering process of give and take, of knowing when to forge ahead and when to pause, of finding the balance in each piece.
Often large in scale the works display qualities of immersion, movement and sound, harkening back to his 30 year career of tour management and sound engineering. Chris Chandler is a self-taught artist who fell into a passion for printmaking after acquiring his first Vandercook Press in 1996 and has exhibited his works across the Pacific Northwest and nationally, in New York City, Los Angeles and Oklahoma. In 2021 he was the recipient for both the Mohawk Paper’s Maker’s Grant and Stumptown Coffee’s Artist Fellowship. He lives and works in Portland, OR managing his art studio and Neu Haus Press for collaborations and letterpress workshops.
