How Nature Works
A solo exhibition with Christopher Wassell
March 4 to April 2, 2023
Christopher Wassell (b. 1969) is an American abstract painter from Wilkes Barre Pennsylvania.
Raised in a military family, he lived in California and New York before beginning high school in Yokosuka Japan and graduating in the Washington, DC area. After studying painting and sculpture at Virginia Commonwealth University, he relocated to New Orleans, Louisiana where he became educated in music and cuisine.
He has been a professional drummer, chef, and stand-up comedian.
In 2018 he moved his studio practice from San Diego to Tijuana, where he currently resides.
He has one daughter (b. 2011)
Intuitive and elegantly raw-boned, Wassell’s symbolism-loaded tangle of work is a pleasurable mystery borne by contradiction. The intensity and refinement inspired by his youth in Japan battle the later, seductive excesses of three thousand long nights in pre-Katrina New Orleans.
As a skater kid in Yokosuka, a student of Fine Art at VCU, a chef in the French Quarter, printmaker, or percussionist with actionist art group Crash Worship ADRV, Wassell has always carved his own path without hesitation or restraint.
With a partly amputated hand, smoke-stung vision and a bit of brandy in the company of Bergson, Motherwell and Lynch, Wassell cuts up the cubist vocabulary and rises above the copycat detritus of his generation.
The result is work that is uniquely authentic, personal and sublime.
How Nature Works
“These paintings are part of a larger work in progress, ongoing for several years now, about the mysterious inner workings of Nature in the face of Humankind’s feeble attempts to contain and control it.
In this timeless struggle for dominance, though geometry is weaponized and boundaries are sanctioned, humans are no match for Nature.
Inevitably, infrastructure will crumble, entropy takes hold and we are served the poetic justice of Wabi-Sabi.”
How Nature Works / 2021 / Christopher Wassell / Oil on canvas / 65.5 x 62 inches / $1975 - "Spectrums of sound and color, Entomology, Electromagnetism, Life Cycles, Child/Parent Conflict, Reproductive Systems, Layers of Sonic Atmosphere, The Seasons. Above and below earth’s crust, a lattice of systems are in transition."
Nocturne / 2022 / Christopher Wassell / Oil on canvas / 30 x 37.5 inches / $875 - "A Rainstorm at Night directly selects specific Tones from a particular Piano in a small Room in an Old New Orleans House. The soundtrack to a future scavenger hunt for holy relics."
El Perro / 2022 / Christopher Wassell / Oil on canvas / 30 x 38 inches / $875 - "Regeneration. All living things die, are consumed by the earth and converted to Energy Resources."
Eleven Eleven / 2021 / Christopher Wassell / Oil on canvas / 28.5 x 30 inches / $650 -"Youth is Brief. Death is Waiting escape from mental prison." (Text on painting is an excerpt from Nothing Gold can Stay by R. Frost)."
Daylight Savings / 2021 / Christopher Wassell / Oil on canvas / $650 - "Time zones and Life cages. A, declaration of faith phrased as adoration of the potentiality of darkness." (Text on painting is an excerpt from The Feet of People Walking Home by E. Dickinson).
Procession I / 2022 / Christopher Wassell / Oil on canvas / 18 x 18 inches / $450 - "The evolution of Rhythm. Sometimes, when something breaks it makes a new better Thing (Kenny Clarke was a pioneer)."
Procession II / 2022 / Christopher Wassell / Oil on canvas / 18 x 18 inches / $450 - "Devil’s music; the effects of electroshock therapy on the Grand Piano (r.i.p. Bud Powell)."
Lonely Woman / 2022 / Christopher Wassell / Oil on canvas / 30 x 38 inches / $875 -"Effects of death upon the living. Secrets carried to the grave. Empty spaces. (A sad and beautiful song written by the great Ornette Coleman)."
Ultraviolet Radiation / 2022 / Christopher Wassell / Oil on canvas / 11.5 x 12 inches / $350 - "Parasitic parents feed on cows deprived of ultraviolet radiation. Stock prices fluctuate. Crystal City ignites The Protein Wars."
Winter in Hokkaido / 2022 / Christopher Wassell / Oil on canvas / 11.5 x 12 inches / $350 - "Ancient Teenage Winter Sports schedule. The Japanese are masters of efficiency and punctuality. We were cold. 'If we hurry, we can still catch the last train home.' In Japan, the seasons are emphasized."