Chris Ballantyne
George Adams Gallery is pleased to present Real Estate Developments: New Paintings, an exhibition of new paintings and a site-specific mural by Chris Ballantyne, on view from April 12 through May 24, 2024. This is Ballantyne’s second exhibition with George Adams Gallery. The gallery will host an opening reception with the artist on Friday, April 12, from 6 - 8 PM.
The exhibition features a selection of recent paintings that depict contemporary landscapes, exploring the intersection of manufactured structures and natural environments. Using acrylic on birchwood panels, Ballantyne juxtaposes renderings of crowded suburban homes and cityscapes with the depth of an ocean or the ruggedness of a steep ravine. The inherent texture of the birchwood grain enhances the depth of his compositions, infusing his landscapes with a tangible, tactile quality.
Ballantyne's childhood was marked by frequent moves due to his father's career with the Coast Guard, often to coastal suburbs across the US. These experiences left him with a strong connection to suburbia – for example, the painting Housetops (2023), which captures the sprawling nature of suburban development and the monotony of endless, interlocking rooftops. In Rooftop with Lounge Chair (2023), Ballantyne renders an urban apartment building in tranquil light. By deliberately omitting descriptive details, the artist encourages viewers to project their own experiences onto the scene, utilizing the raw, unfinished wood panel as the primary backdrop for his composition. Notably, while Ballantyne's subjects are often the urban and suburban landscapes, a human presence is implied but never depicted, infusing them with an unsettling sense of stillness.
Serving as a counterpoint to the built-up environments of the paintings, Ballantyne will create a site-specific work for the exhibition: a mural embodying the depths of a body of water, painted directly on the gallery wall.
Chris Ballantyne (b. 1972, Mobile, AL) has been the subject of over fifteen solo exhibitions in New York, Los Angeles, and San Francisco. He was the recipient of several awards including the Tournesol Award and Residency at the Headlands Center for the Arts in 2004, a Joan Mitchell Foundation Grant in 2005, and a Tamarind Institute Invitational Residency in 2013. His work is included in public collections such as the Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, the Art Rotterdam Foundation, Rotterdam, The Netherlands, and the Judith Rothschild Foundation, New York, among others. Ballantyne received his BA from the University of South Florida, Tampa in 1997 and his MFA from San Francisco Art Institute in 2002. Ballantyne lives and works in Manhattan, New York.