BIO

Born in Detroit, Christopher Batten began his undergraduate training at the Columbus College of Art and Design, and later completed his training at the College for Creative Studies where he earned a BFA in Illustration in 2006. Batten is a 2017 graduate of the Maryland Institute College of Art’s LeRoy E. Hoffberger School of Painting MFA program, where he received a Hoffberger Merit Scholarship, the Dr. Leslie King Hammond Graduate Award, and two AIGA Worldstudio Scholarships. While at MICA, Batten also served as a Graduate Program Assistant to Joan Waltemath, Hoffberger School Director. His artwork has been exhibited in cities such as Detroit, New York, San Antonio, Baltimore, and Atlanta. Subsequently, Batten’s works have appeared at the Charles H. Wright Museum of African American History, Red Bull Arts Detroit, and in the pages of New American Paintings. He has been an Artist in Residence at Red Bull Arts Detroit and at the Creative Alliance in Baltimore. Batten is also an art educator and is currently faculty at Bard High School Early College Baltimore and an adjunct professor at the Maryland Institute College of Art.

*Lives and works in Baltimore, MD

*Represented by Catalyst Contemporary (Baltimore, MD

STATEMENT

  My drawing and painting practice examines issues of race, inequity, economic deprivation, the mundane, and hysteria relative to America’s socio-political landscape.  Through abstraction, representation, and the space in between, I explore the phenomenological aspects of violence and the moments of peace/balance that exists therein, fueled by my twenty-nine years of experience as a martial artist and upbringing in an urban environment.  Abstraction has formed a vehicle for recollecting my experiences as a fighter, and placing me in a position that I could not occupy at the time of those encounters;  the spectator.  The broader view of the spectator, when combined with that of the participant, creates a space that can be explored in the moments I revisit representation.   Overall, we all function in life as combatants who fight for and/or against something.  The most critical of these battles is the one that takes place inside us daily when we reflect on how our experiences have affected us throughout our lives. Surface, color,  gesture, and symbolism work together to traverse the territory where the effects of our lived experiences and societal conditions collide with their causes.