Drift Contemporary Art Gallery Featured Artist

ARTISTS : EXHIBITIONS : VISIT : BUZZ : SHOP

Christian Berman

The natural world plays a huge role in my attitude towards society, and often forms the subject matter of my art. I am obsessed and in love with the variation and physical beauty of nature. To me, every plant and animal has a character and a life that is equally as powerful and meaningful as that of any human. The earliest known human paintings and petroglyphs, such as the cave paintings at Lascaux, are representations of animals. To paint an animal is to begin understanding our own nature, and to create a bond with the chain of all living beings. I paint birds because they have always led me to explore the world. When I was a young kid, birdwatching acted as the impetus that led me from forest to seashore, mountain to stream. I followed birds, made myself acquainted with their individual colors, calls, and habits, and took comfort in their ability to wander. Painting, like birdwatching, is a way to transcend the boundaries of day to day existence. In a painting, memory, emotion, and science intersect, and the avian subjects become totemic expressions of my subconscious thought. I believe that beauty and humor sometimes have a greater function in society than any concept, method of organization, or intellectual discourse, and I will continue to pursue sensory and emotional exhilaration through the artistic interpretation of nature. We are all lost, swimming in a vast broth of random acts and tangled reactions, and art is a way for me to chart my way through the soup.

Christian is currently a graduate student at Rhode Island School of Design. See more of Christian's work on his website.

Dream Fishing
Acrylic on Canvas 30"x30"
$1000.00