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May Issue 2003
Gallery 2 in Columbia, SC, Features Works by Christopher Bilton
Gallery
2 in Columbia, SC, is offering The Midland its first look at the
painting and sculpture of Neoclassic artist, Christopher Bilton.
Gallery 2 will feature more than three dozen Bilton drawings,
paintings and sculptures through May 10, 2003.
"Chris' art is high impact; although he does some smaller intimate pieces, he usually works large, sometimes up to six feet or more," gallery owner, Carolyn Powell said. "Form is the essential element of his work. He celebrates the human figure in a spiritual way; but his work is not straight up figurative art. Chris skews angles; his work is dreamlike and really draws the viewer in."
A native of Eutawville,
SC, Bilton recently moved back into what was his paternal grandfather's
home and converted a loft into his studio. Underneath soft northern
light filtering in from skylights, Bilton paints while his daughters
make their own works of art in the corner of the loft. Music plays
and Bilton stops occasionally to help his children with their
projects. Outside, the sounds of small town traffic drifts by.
Next door is Bilton's grandfather's old grocery store building
that now serves as sculpture studio and woodworking shop for Bilton
and his wife, Carmen, also a sculptor.
Bilton, 38, works from his imagination, but draws upon years of
figurative drawing sessions with live models and the study of
the traditions of classical painting and sculpture. The female
figures that are the present focus of his work are gracefully
entwined, fitting together much like pieces of a puzzle inside
the plane of the canvas. These rounded feminine figures appear
part Botticelli, part Botero, with bodies so robust they seem
ready to burst out of their smooth skin. Bilton's art is moody
and slightly abstract; his application of oil and acrylic paint
is somewhat choppy, with reflections of expressionism. His drawings
include powerful dark hatch marks and large swaths of charcoal
raked across brown paper.
"If you paint slightly larger than life, then your figures
appear life size," Bilton said. "My figures are painted
versions of sculpture." Indeed his sculptures reflect the
same Roman noses and voluptuous bodies that are his modified version
of reality found on his oversized canvases. Bilton's still lifes
are smaller, but also reflect his interest in classical flower
arrangements and individual objects draped in rich fabrics, each
with a touch of abstraction.
Bilton, who teaches art at the College of Charleston, describes his work as Neo-neo-classical. "The mid-20th century brought Neoclassicism, a resurgence of the idea of a classic generality in art that transcends time. Bilton considers himself participating in a third wave of appreciation for this genre. Neoclassical means that the artist understands the historical context of light, line, shape, form, geometry, color and most importantly, the subject matter of pictorial language," he said. Bilton feels he was drawn to figurative art because, "The human form has always been the most revered and often used subject for artists. Anybody can identify with the human body. There's a story there. Viewers see people and they want to know what's going on."
After earning a BA from the College of Charleston in 1988, Bilton received a general scholarship funded by the Warhol Foundation that enabled him to attend The Graduate School of Figurative Art at the New York Academy of Art where he received an MFA. His work has been exhibited at the Gibbes Museum of Art, at the Charleston Fine Arts Festival and is in The Forbes Collection and numerous private collections throughout the United States. Bilton's most recent accolade came in the form of an invitation to participate in The Chateau Balleroy Program, an international program of cultural and artistic exchange with France.
For further information
check our SC Commercial Gallery listings, call the gallery at
803/771-6123, and e-mail at (Gallerytwo@aol.com).
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