"Curbside Motel," oil on canvas, 2007
We’d like to give Christopher Chinn a high-five. Or maybe two. After graduating with an MFA from USC, the Los Angeles-based painter moved into an abandoned sewing factory/workspace in Downtown L.A.
Mastering portraits of his beautiful wife while surrounded by poverty and Downtown’s homeless population posed a jarring disconnect, and soon Chinn was befriending the faces he passed on the streets. His encounters allowed him to photograph and paint his subjects for “On the Row,” a series of large-scale oil paintings of the homeless Angelenos that make up the fabric of his neighborhood. Both chilling and beautiful, with broad strokes building stark detail, Chinn’s new work lends insight and humanity to a subject many of us might otherwise walk right past.
Catch "On the Row," opening at Overtones Gallery on Saturday, March 15, and running through April 26.
