Afterimage by Chris Riddle

Offering new drawings alongside a series of oil paintings on drop-ceiling tiles that place abstraction and color field painting in equality with photorealistic reproduction, Afterimage extends motifs of pattern, depth, and representation through unmediated attention to surface. Gestural ink and charcoal echo the visual tactics of the ceiling tile paintings, grounded by a shifting horizon line that suggests a narrative thread. Void-like patterns and negative space iterate throughout, evoking window frames, clouds, or caves. A layered yellow and purple painting seems to evade visibility, both colors merging optically to produce what is colloquially known as “impossible color.” Framing new process-based works alongside earlier technical investigations, the works in Afterimage reckon with what endures in the act of discerning and demarcating boundaries, refusing or allowing appearance at the level of surface.   

About Chris Riddle 
Chris Riddle lives and works between New York and Philadelphia. Riddle completed an MFA in Painting from Tyler School of Art & Architecture in 2020. Also in 2020, Riddle was a Seasonal Fellow at Byrdcliffe Artist Colony, Woodstock, New York and curated 2020 Tyler MFA Painting at Massey Klein Gallery, New York, NY. From 2009-2017 Riddle assisted in the studios of Rudolf Stingel, Ellen Altfest, Kon Trubkovich, Jonathan Horowitz, and The Still House Group in New York City. From 2020-2021, Riddle worked with the artists Anoka Faruqee and David Driscoll in New Haven, CT. Most recently, Riddle has assisted in the studio of Dona Nelson. Solo presentations of Riddle’s work include On The Line I and II, Byrdcliffe Artist Colony, Woodstock, NY; Hedge, Temple Contemporary, Tyler School of Art and Architecture, Philadelphia, PA; Fountains, Ugly Duck/Fuego, Rochester, NY; Self-Titled, Cameo Gallery, Brooklyn. Selected group exhibitions include A-I-R Exhibition, Byrdcliffe Artist Colony, Woodstock, NY; Everything Must Go, Atelier FAS, Philadelphia; Certain Ground, curated by Tausif Noor; 2020 Tyler Painting, Massey Klein Gallery, New York; National Arts Drive, Byrdcliffe Arts Colony, Woodstock, NY; America Now, Salt Studios, Brooklyn; Strip/Stripe, The Emily Harvey Foundation, New York.