NYAB Event - Chrisa Biddy “Mobile Uploads”

Chrisa Biddy “Mobile Uploads”

Lyons Wier Gallery

This event has ended.

Chrisa Biddy turns to Facebook and other social networks for inspiration for his oil and watercolor paintings. His subjects are self-represented, captured via their smart phones or digital cameras, and observed within the context of their respective lives.
Biddy uses these vernacular images to transport the subject from its original common state- a snapshot, to a pared down representation of our current social media zeitgeist.
Comprised of small realistic oil and watercolor paintings, most averaging only 4 x 6 inches in size, the subject matter of Mobile Uploads explores the world of seemingly indifferent characters, with a tinge of angst. The subjects are navigating the social networking scene via the immediacy of ‘point-shoot-and-post’. Although it is said that a picture is worth a thousand words, the colloquial images that serve as Biddy’s source material are apparent one-liners that say: “LOOK AT ME!”
The youth portrayed in Biddy’s work are generally teetering between innocence and self-awareness and often exhibit culpable or imprudent behaviors. Unlike many artists who turn to the Internet, Biddy does not try to elevate the ordinary aspects of his subjects. Rather, he choses to accentuate their foolish and boastful behavior. Like watching a train wreck; you just can’t divert your eyes.
Voyeurism, exploitation, subversion, sexual exploration, etc., are all words that can be associated with Biddy’s work. At the end of the day, it is simply a boy painting girls, all the while ignoring the trappings of the femme fatale and political correctness. The subjects have allowed themselves to enter a world wide web of unknown onlookers and the artist has catapulted the impermanence and awkwardness of a snapshot to the permanence and artfulness of painting.