Kristopher Lionel
"I remember that day how the ocean's blue shed a shade or two at the sun's behest and then later how that fickle sea took back a shade or three as the sun tired and fell to rest." -Kristopher Lionel
All artworks by Kristopher Lionel
Interactive Sculpture • 5 artworks
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Surfaces • 4 artworks
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The first piece in my series, 'Surfaces', is a work titled, 'The Moment Ossified (Surface 1)'. To talk[...]
The first piece in my series, 'Surfaces', is a work titled, 'The Moment Ossified (Surface 1)'. To talk about this piece, and the resulting series, I need to provide the backdrop, the setting that led to it's conception. After receiving my Bachelors of Fine Arts Degree in 1994, then going on to attain my Master of Fine Art Degree in 1997, both with concentrations in sculpture, I was offered a job working in a metal fabrication studio in Atlanta, GA. After a couple of years of this, I decided that it wasn't satisfying my creative compulsions, so I moved back the the Northeast to start an artisan/art furniture design and fabrication business (a "commercial" use of my skills with the ulterior motive of "working on my art" in the space and with the tools and equipment used to build the furniture). Part of setting up my workshop was to build a large table as a main working surface, the base of this table had a 1/2 inch (removable) sheet of plywood screwed to it as a top. I made it removable knowing that it would take a lot of wear and tear and eventually need to be replaced.
A number of years later, as I was looking at this worktable that had accumulated several years of cuts, scratches, holes, and stains, I saw shapes and lines suggesting a strong composition and realized that it was calling out to be made into a work of art, a wall sculpture. With paint and stain I began to emphasize selected shapes and obscure others. After working on it laid flat for a time (often looking down from atop an eight foot ladder), I separated it from its base and worked on it upright, cutting through it and making the recessed shapes you see in the finished piece. Working through the process of discovering and creating this piece, I decided that "Surface" (thought of as both noun and verb) was how I would name it. Years of building furniture on this work-surface resulted in a rich, uncontrived, accumulation of mark that would be difficult, if not impossible to mimic or reproduce. These marks eventually surfaced to reveal the composition of an artwork. 'Surface' is both what it is and how it came to be.
* A note about the series, 'Surfaces':
The process described above, in which the accumulation of mark resulted from making furniture, ended when I decided that furniture making wasn't satisfying my creative compulsions and closed my business to focus singularly on my artwork. The lines and marks, etc, in 'Dissociating and Tumbling (Surface 4)', and all 'Surfaces' moving forward, were/are accumulated from my art-making process.
A number of years later, as I was looking at this worktable that had accumulated several years of cuts, scratches, holes, and stains, I saw shapes and lines suggesting a strong composition and realized that it was calling out to be made into a work of art, a wall sculpture. With paint and stain I began to emphasize selected shapes and obscure others. After working on it laid flat for a time (often looking down from atop an eight foot ladder), I separated it from its base and worked on it upright, cutting through it and making the recessed shapes you see in the finished piece. Working through the process of discovering and creating this piece, I decided that "Surface" (thought of as both noun and verb) was how I would name it. Years of building furniture on this work-surface resulted in a rich, uncontrived, accumulation of mark that would be difficult, if not impossible to mimic or reproduce. These marks eventually surfaced to reveal the composition of an artwork. 'Surface' is both what it is and how it came to be.
* A note about the series, 'Surfaces':
The process described above, in which the accumulation of mark resulted from making furniture, ended when I decided that furniture making wasn't satisfying my creative compulsions and closed my business to focus singularly on my artwork. The lines and marks, etc, in 'Dissociating and Tumbling (Surface 4)', and all 'Surfaces' moving forward, were/are accumulated from my art-making process.
Veiled Surface Iterations • 16 artworks
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The works in the series 'Veiled Surface (Iterations)' are offshoots from another series called 'Surfaces'.[...]
The works in the series 'Veiled Surface (Iterations)' are offshoots from another series called 'Surfaces'. Similar to the way "surface" is used as both noun and verb in the 'Surfaces' series, "Veil" is used as both noun and verb in my 'Veiled Surface (Iterations)'. The first step in making my Iterations is to veil (cover) a piece from 'Surfaces' by laying paper on it. I then use charcoal, chalk, or pencil to make a rubbing that lifts an impression (sketch) from the surface in which the bas-relief cuts and textures underneath are transferred to the paper; this is the first glimpse through the veil. The pieces are then completed in oil.
Revisiting similar initial compositions through these iterations is a practice of seeing the familiar anew, of interpreting the shrouded glances beneath the veil into clear expressions that are uniquely independent of other works in the series. I build upon the sketches with oils, examining the limitless ways that mark, paint application, and color, affect composition, mood, and meaning within the pieces. Two works that demonstrate how different the 'Iterations' can be are, 'Each Reign Spills Into The Sea (Veiled Surface, Iteration 5)', which conveys an impression of the sea and the motion of waves, and 'Ascending The Thermals (Veiled Surface Iteration 15)', which is hot, evoking a sense of moving air.
While working on this series, I remembered a quote from William Blake's poem "Auguries of Innocence" that speaks to the repetitive aspect of working through these Iterations, of looking intently on the known to find variance: "To see a world in a grain of sand and a heaven in a wild flower, hold infinity in the palm of your hand and eternity in an hour." In this series, I've set myself to seeing through the veil both literally and metaphorically. Looking upon the same thing over and again but always seeing something new is to pull back a veil that exists only in one's mind.
Revisiting similar initial compositions through these iterations is a practice of seeing the familiar anew, of interpreting the shrouded glances beneath the veil into clear expressions that are uniquely independent of other works in the series. I build upon the sketches with oils, examining the limitless ways that mark, paint application, and color, affect composition, mood, and meaning within the pieces. Two works that demonstrate how different the 'Iterations' can be are, 'Each Reign Spills Into The Sea (Veiled Surface, Iteration 5)', which conveys an impression of the sea and the motion of waves, and 'Ascending The Thermals (Veiled Surface Iteration 15)', which is hot, evoking a sense of moving air.
While working on this series, I remembered a quote from William Blake's poem "Auguries of Innocence" that speaks to the repetitive aspect of working through these Iterations, of looking intently on the known to find variance: "To see a world in a grain of sand and a heaven in a wild flower, hold infinity in the palm of your hand and eternity in an hour." In this series, I've set myself to seeing through the veil both literally and metaphorically. Looking upon the same thing over and again but always seeing something new is to pull back a veil that exists only in one's mind.
Outgrowths (From Veiled Surface Iterations) • 5 artworks
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Outgrowths (From Veiled Surface Iterations)
While the works shown here are derived predominately from[...]
Outgrowths (From Veiled Surface Iterations)
While the works shown here are derived predominately from my series 'Veiled Surface Iterations' they diverge in significant enough ways to warrant being grouped together as "outgrowths". They are the result of experimentation, of cross-pollination between ideas and other series. These pieces are a turn in the road, the intersection where my work heads in new directions. The description for each piece details how it has veered away from the series 'Veiled Surface Iterations'.
While the works shown here are derived predominately from my series 'Veiled Surface Iterations' they diverge in significant enough ways to warrant being grouped together as "outgrowths". They are the result of experimentation, of cross-pollination between ideas and other series. These pieces are a turn in the road, the intersection where my work heads in new directions. The description for each piece details how it has veered away from the series 'Veiled Surface Iterations'.
(id)eograms For Transcribing Dreams • 9 artworks
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The works in the series '(id)eograms For Transcribing Dreams' are influenced by both the Surrealist[...]
The works in the series '(id)eograms For Transcribing Dreams' are influenced by both the Surrealist concept of automatism and the id (that part of the mind in which innate instinctive impulses and primary processes are manifest). Each piece features "automatic drawings" created with poured glue that, when dry, form raised, embossed, shapes. The pouring of glue limits my control over the process and puts distance between direct, conscious intention, and the outcome. The openness of this approach allows the subconscious to reveal itself. The drawings become evocative symbols, pictographs, letters of a repressed alphabet, or ideograms that, when arranged together, to suggest the iconography of dreams.
The Happy War • 4 artworks
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'The Happy War' is about humanity's self-driven, self-reinforced separation from Nature. Each painting[...]
'The Happy War' is about humanity's self-driven, self-reinforced separation from Nature. Each painting is a "page" in a surrealistic allegory. The works in this ongoing series satirize the concept that human beings, above all other living things, are most significant in the universe; they depict the consequences of this belief. Through symbolism, 'The Happy War' portrays a nightmarish, barren, world in which this mindset holds sway. Like the piece, 'The Garden of Earthly Delights', painted by the early Dutch master Hieronymus Bosch between 1490 and 1510, 'The Happy War' sets forth to communicate a moral. While there's little agreement as to the exact meaning of this Bosch painting, it has often been interpreted to mean that "sins of the flesh" will result in humanity's fall from grace, our damnation. 'The Happy War' is about humanity's transgressions ("sins") against Nature and the resulting hellscape we will condemn ourselves and future generations to live in following the collapse of ecosystems driven by an increasingly unstable climate as a consequence of global warming. In answer to the onslaught of disinformation we've seen in recent years, 'The Happy War' illustrates humanities fall from reason. Aspects of Christianity and technology, and right wing ideologies, responsible for reinforcing and entrenching the belief that humanity is separate and above all other living things, are wickedly derided in 'The Happy War'. Through a mixture of obscure symbols, like monkey-angels and pig-demons, and others more familiar, like crosses and canaries, which I've selected from popular culture, all representing vices, follies, faults, abuses, and atrocities, this fitful, episodic narrative traverses a landscape of absurdism.
Representing the idea of humanity's self-importance, the senselessly destructive culmination of our ingenious technologies, is a symbol of futility embodied by the human figure seen fitted with a mechanical, wheeled prosthetic. Hugh Hubris is the name I've given this legless figure mounted to a machine that it cranks to turn endless circles around a fixed, immovable block ('so to better survey the breadth of its domain'). This sad, spinning figure symbolizes functioning futility, it represents humanity's self-limiting conceit and the destructive consequences. It was once generally believed that the Sun orbited around the Earth only to eventually be bravely disproved by science. Hugh Hubris, who is so arrogant that he made certain he could only revolve around himself, stands as a reminder of human egoism. 'The Happy War' is my rebuttal to a worldview that seeks to subjugate Nature to human will, to consume it without consideration of the consequences. The story on each "page" of 'The Happy War' unfolds above a scorched, arid landscape devoid of life, a consequence of our attitude toward and treatment of Nature.
Gabriel and his fellow monkey-angles fly through themes of morality, religion, politics, technological ascent, and environmental collapse, as they wage a war against forces that would see their destruction. Theirs is a fight for survival, for life, for happiness. Their fight is our fight, let's hope they win.
Representing the idea of humanity's self-importance, the senselessly destructive culmination of our ingenious technologies, is a symbol of futility embodied by the human figure seen fitted with a mechanical, wheeled prosthetic. Hugh Hubris is the name I've given this legless figure mounted to a machine that it cranks to turn endless circles around a fixed, immovable block ('so to better survey the breadth of its domain'). This sad, spinning figure symbolizes functioning futility, it represents humanity's self-limiting conceit and the destructive consequences. It was once generally believed that the Sun orbited around the Earth only to eventually be bravely disproved by science. Hugh Hubris, who is so arrogant that he made certain he could only revolve around himself, stands as a reminder of human egoism. 'The Happy War' is my rebuttal to a worldview that seeks to subjugate Nature to human will, to consume it without consideration of the consequences. The story on each "page" of 'The Happy War' unfolds above a scorched, arid landscape devoid of life, a consequence of our attitude toward and treatment of Nature.
Gabriel and his fellow monkey-angles fly through themes of morality, religion, politics, technological ascent, and environmental collapse, as they wage a war against forces that would see their destruction. Theirs is a fight for survival, for life, for happiness. Their fight is our fight, let's hope they win.
Portrait • 1 artwork
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My portraits explore the idea of humanity's broken relationship with Nature, our increasing disconnection[...]
My portraits explore the idea of humanity's broken relationship with Nature, our increasing disconnection to the biosphere, resulting in our destructive isolation from the rest of the living world.
Dots and Ethereal Structures • 7 artworks
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'Dots and Ethereal Structures', are a grouping of related works in which I approached painting as sculpture.[...]
'Dots and Ethereal Structures', are a grouping of related works in which I approached painting as sculpture. In painting, it's conventionally accepted that paint and other mediums are applied directly to the surface of a work. As a sculptor, with a sculptor's a point of view, I was interested in taking a different tack. I decided to apply paint not just to the surface of the work, but also to physically place/float color and shape in front of the surface; I achieved this by insetting pigmented epoxy into heavy clear-coats of catalyzed epoxy finish.
Color, atmospheric effect, perspective, and material use, were employed throughout this series to find visual tensions that are created when that which is physically real and tangible is juxtaposed with the imaginary, and illusory. The pieces from and Ethereal Structures' are about how space and depth (both real and fictitious), as well as visual movement and energy (achieved through color and perspective), combine to create expressive works.
To create visual vibrations, saturated colors were placed on and in front of colors that are, or approach, their compliments. These seemingly “vibrating” colors, where the edges of two directly adjacent colors appear to merge, blur and glow, giving the illusion of motion, is a phenomena that occurs with the use of bold and highly saturated color schemes (especially when the colors are compliments).
Dots and perspective line drawings were set into clear epoxy coats where they float in front of atmospheric fields of color to create the illusion of space, of three-dimensional structures suspended in air. A close look will reveal that these dots and drawings cast actual, real shadows onto the surfaces behind them.
The works from and Ethereal Structures' were informed by Abstract Expressionism. The pieces in this grouping are not rooted in, nor do they mirror, translate, or represent, objective reality. Free from objective subject, color, line, atmosphere, perspective and material were used for aesthetic reasons, to create visually compelling, evocative artworks.
Color, atmospheric effect, perspective, and material use, were employed throughout this series to find visual tensions that are created when that which is physically real and tangible is juxtaposed with the imaginary, and illusory. The pieces from and Ethereal Structures' are about how space and depth (both real and fictitious), as well as visual movement and energy (achieved through color and perspective), combine to create expressive works.
To create visual vibrations, saturated colors were placed on and in front of colors that are, or approach, their compliments. These seemingly “vibrating” colors, where the edges of two directly adjacent colors appear to merge, blur and glow, giving the illusion of motion, is a phenomena that occurs with the use of bold and highly saturated color schemes (especially when the colors are compliments).
Dots and perspective line drawings were set into clear epoxy coats where they float in front of atmospheric fields of color to create the illusion of space, of three-dimensional structures suspended in air. A close look will reveal that these dots and drawings cast actual, real shadows onto the surfaces behind them.
The works from and Ethereal Structures' were informed by Abstract Expressionism. The pieces in this grouping are not rooted in, nor do they mirror, translate, or represent, objective reality. Free from objective subject, color, line, atmosphere, perspective and material were used for aesthetic reasons, to create visually compelling, evocative artworks.
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Biography
Kristopher is a contemporary American artist whose work, which includes paintings, wall art, and sculpture, has been widely exhibited in solo and group exhibitions throughout New England and are included in both private and public collections. In April 2022, Kristopher was invited to join the Silvermine Guild of Artists in New Canaan CT. His work has received numerous awards including: 2022 - Honorable Mention in Light Space Time Gallery's 13th Abstracts Art Exhibition (United States). 2022 - Finalist in Art Show International Gallery's 4th PORTRAIT Art Competition (international). 2021 - 1st Place, Overall. Light Space Time Gallery's 5th Annual Abstracts Art Exhibition (United States). 2021 - 1st Place, Paint & Other Media. Light Space Time Gallery's 5th Annual Abstracts Art Exhibition (United States). 2021 - Honorable Mention, Light Space Time Gallery's 12th Abstracts Art Exhibition (United States).
Kristopher attended the art program at Hartwick College in Oneonta, NY, where he received his BFA with a concentration in sculpture (graduating cum laude and being awarded Departmental Distinction in Art). He then enrolled in the postgraduate sculpture program at Washington University in St. Louis, MO, where he received his MFA. In school, Kristopher developed his interest and skills in wood and metalworking. After graduating, he moved to Atlanta, GA, where he worked as a metal fabricator. Applying this experience, Kristopher moved to his home state of Connecticut to launch a business designing and making artistic furniture. He ran his business until 2009 when he decided to close his furniture shop to focus singularly on his life's purpose—to make art.
Kristopher's artistic focus shifts between several series that include, interactive sculpture, wall sculpture, abstract painting, and allegorical painting, all conceptually connected by themes directly and indirectly related to or inspired by Nature. Through an ongoing series of allegorical paintings, using symbolism and satire, Kristopher explores themes of environmental degradation brought on by human activity. He examines the consequences of our relationship to the natural world where we have placed ourselves above and outside of Nature as apposed to intrinsically connected to it.
In his abstract painting and wall sculpture, he uses color, shape, line, material, and composition, expressively to create evocative, visually immersive works.
Currently, Kristopher is focused on the development of a sculpture series titled, 'Time Will Tell', which will ultimately include twenty-four, interactive, sound-generating, mechanical sculptures. Individually, the sculptures will vary in scale and material but they will all generate the sound of rain. The sculptures in the series 'Time Will Tell' raise questions about technology, utility, purpose, and our relationship to Nature.
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Nationality:
UNITED STATES
- Date of birth : 1971
- Artistic domains:
- Groups: Contemporary American Artists
Influences
Education
1995 - 1997
Master of Fine Arts - MFA.
United States
1990 - 1994
Bachelor of Fine Arts - BFA
United States
Artist value certified
No data available yet
Galleries & Groups
Presented by Light Space & Time Online Art Gallery
Light Space & Time Online Art Gallery
(Art gallery, United States)Achievements
Prizes and Awards
2022
"The Moment Ossified (Surface 1)". Honorable Mention, Light Space Time's 13Th Abstracts Art Exhibition.
United States
2021
"Firmament". 1St Place - Overall, Light Space Time's 5Th Patterns Art Exhibition.
United States
1994
Cum Laude With Departmental Distinction In Art.
United States
Activity on Artmajeur
Last modification date : Jul 11, 2024
(Member since 2021)
Image views: 138,830
Artworks by Kristopher Lionel added to favorite collections: 70
Latest News
All the latest news from contemporary artist Kristopher Lionel
Added Jan 30, 2022
2021 was a successful year despite all the challenges. I'm thrilled to announce that my work, 'Firmament', won 1st Place Overall and 1st Place Painting and Other Media in last year's Light Space & Time Art Gallery's 5th Annual “Patterns” Online Art Competition. The gallery received 531 entries from 22 different countries from around the world.
Added Jun 1, 2022
Selected Group Exhibition 2022
Future Perfect/Imperfect: The Next Century, Silvermine Galleries, New Canaan, CT
Added Apr 3, 2022
Upcoming Exhibition: Silvermine Gallery's 'Future Perfect/Imperfect: The Next Century'.
I'm thrilled to announce that my painting 'Three Little Birds Hang By My Doorstep (The Happy War)' was selected to be included in Silvermine Gallery's exhibition, 'Future Perfect/Imperfect: The Next Century'.
This exhibition, one of the highlights of Silvermine Arts Center’s yearlong centennial celebration, curated by critic and curator Lilly Wei, will commemorate the organization’s many past achievements by looking forward. Wei has put together a body of work that creates a collective vision of what the future might look like and how that may be manifested.
This exhibition opens to the public April 30, 2022.
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Christopher Brown. 'Three Little Birds Hang By My Doorstep (Happy War)'. 2021. 66 x 48 inches. Oil on canvas.
Added Apr 3, 2022
Added Mar 1, 2022
'The Moment Ossified (Surface 1)'
I am thrilled to announce that my piece, 'The Moment Ossified (Surface 1)', received Honorable Mention in Light Space and Time's, 13th annual “Abstracts” Art Exhibition 2022 (The gallery received 1,091 entries from 29 different countries from around the world, as well as from 36 different states and the District of Columbia).
https://www.lightspacetime.art/abstracts-art-exhibition-march-2022/
Added Jan 30, 2022
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