FOR-SITE FOUNDATION

Nevada Museum of Art / August 10 - October 5, 2008

"Ice in the Whirlwind", Sculpture, May 2009
"Raw Material", Reno News & Review, August 2008
"Chris Drury Creates Giant Whirlwind Etched in
Winnemucca Lake", Artdaily.org, 2008

Selected Solo Exhibitions

2006 Vanderbilt University Art Gallery, Nashville, Tennessee.
2005 Villa Montalvo, California.
2004 Oriel Mostyn, Llandudno, Wales, Stephen Lacey Gallery, London.
2003 Aberystwyth School of Art Gallery and Museum, Aberystwyth, UK.
2002 De La Warr Pavilion, Bexhill on Sea, UK.
2000 Stephen Lacey Gallery, London.

Selected Group Exhibitions

2005 The Vinyl Project, Cork, Ireland.
Sainsbury Centre for the Visual Arts, University of East Anglia, Norwich, UK.
2004 Dorsky Gallery, Long Island City, New York.
2004-05 Stephen Lacey Gallery, London.
2003 North Carolina Art Museum, Raleigh, North Carolina.
2000 Refusalon Gallery, San Francisco.
1999 Refusalon Gallery, San Francisco.
1998-99 Odsherreds Kuntsmuseum, Asnaes, Denmark.

Residency Dates: Summer 2008
Chris Drury creates ephemeral assemblies of natural materials. His work explores the connections between nature and culture, inner and outer, systems within the body, and systems on the planet. Drury often collaborates with scientists and technicians from a broad spectrum of disciplines.

Often associated with the Land Art and/or Earth Art movements, Drury distinguishes his art-making practices through his ongoing commitment to examining the “inner nature” of human consciousness and its relationship to the “outer nature” of the material world.

Drury’s works have often taken the form of shelters, cairns, baskets, and bundles made from natural objects such as rocks and wood. His thoughtful examination of materials—including mushrooms, plants, trees, and water—have led Drury to discerning observations about the complex patterns of flow and movement within nature. According to British art critic Kay Syrad, “Drury’s art is a story of rhythms, tensions and conflicts, labor, ritual and human intelligence. Each piece of work is a complete narrative, opening out gradually and reaching (temporary) resolution. Every decision about which material to use, which shape to create, where to place a work, whether or how to photograph or record it, and how to think about the contradictions between the work and its reproduction is a dramatic act that defines, dissolves and renews perceptions about the relationship between nature and culture.”

Chris Drury's Cloud Pool Chamber and accompanying videos are included in the exhibition Chris Drury: Mushrooms|Clouds at the Nevada Museum of Art, Reno from August 10 - October 5, 2008.

My work is concerned with making connections. These fall into three categories:
Nature / Culture
Inner / Outer
Microcosm / Macrocosm

I will use any means and material to explore this, both inside as wall works and installations, or outside as permanent or temporary installations and architectural constructions. Particularly I have made a number of Cloud Chambers, which act like camera obscuras, projecting the sky through a lens or aperture onto the white interior walls and floor.

Throughout my career I have always been fascinated by mushrooms, mostly because they are a manifestation of a life death cycle in nature. I have used their image and spore prints in many ways.

Most recently I have been working with scientists, looking at the micro/ macro phenomena: systems in the body linked to similar systems in the universe, and I will continue to do this in Nevada, working with the Desert Research Institute.

My residency at For-Site will be linked to the larger collaboration with The Nevada Museum of Art resulting in a show there about Place. That is to say; the geographical effect of the Sierras on the climate and topography of the desert basin, taking into account in a broad sense, the ecology, and history of the area, both ancient and current.

-Chris Drury, 2008

Chris Drury (b. 1948, Colombo, Sri Lanka) studied sculpture at Camberwell School of Art in London. He currently lives and works in England.

View the CV.

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