Chip Off the Old Block: Ryan Burns & Andi Crist

On Display at Rockford University Art Gallery October 28th – December 6th 2024
Reception: Friday, November 22nd, 6:00-8:00PM
Artist Talk: Friday, November 22nd, 7:00PM

Andi Crist is a conceptual artist based in Chicago. Her sculptural practice is complemented by a career as a professional art-handler and fabricator, and employs a variety of media including woodworking, ceramics, leathercraft and casting into mixed-media works. By pairing humor and skepticism with craft-based techniques, Crist aims a critical eye at the value systems at play in the arts economy on large and small scales. Absurdity and utility target intellectualism with a serious dedication to craftsmanship and a “master-of-none better than a master-of-one” attitude. Objects are rooted in real iterations of themselves, and replications reflect a world where work and play become both synonymous and antagonistic. With keen self-awareness and an often sardonic approach to the gallery as a white cube, Crist’s work incites critical examinations of contemporary industrialized studio practices while galvanizing craft in the realm of fine arts.

Ryan Burns makes zine-inspired drawings and still life paintings of fruit, typically protected in furniture-inspired framing devices. The work presents itself like a multi-panel framed shadowbox, consisting of ink drawings on raw canvas and fruit still life oil paintings on panel. His autobiographical zines and observational paintings gain insight into the past, search for personal identity, and provide empowerment to the author and audience.

Images courtesy of the gallery. Thank you to Ari Norris for the documentation.