Born:               New York City, 1960

 

 

Education:    BFA, Boston University, 1983

      

 

Selected Exhibitions:

 

*     2009       Solo Installation/ U.S. Embassy. Hanoi, Vietnam

*     2009       Reveries, Foster/White Gallery, Seattle WA

*     2007       Christopher Cousins: Recent Works, Lowe Gallery, Atlanta GA

*     2006       NonObjectivity, Pharmaka Gallery, LA CA

*     2006       Ancestors: In Search of a Source, Lowe Gallery, Santa Monica CA    

*     2005       Venice to Venice, V and A Gallery, Venice Italy

*     2005       Blue, Pharmaka Gallery, LA CA

*     2005       Solo Exhibition, SolArt Gallery, Santa Ana CA

*     2005       Outside the Box/ Pharmaka, Pharmaka Gallery, LA CA

                       -Received LA Weekly “Pick of the Week”                                              

*     2005       Inside the Box/ Pharmaka, Bert Green Fine Art Gallery, LA CA

*     2004       Abstractions, Glass Garage Gallery, W Hollywood CA

*     2004       Solo Show, “Sacred Space”, SOHO Gallery, Studio City CA

*     2004       Inaugural Group Show, Lurie Fine Art Gallery, Boca Raton FL

1. *    2003       Contemporary Modernists, Glass Garage Gallery, W Hollywood CA
   

*     2002       Abstract Notions, SOHO Gallery, Studio City CA

*     2002       Simply Red, The dA Gallery, Pomona CA

*     2001       From France, SOHO Gallery, Studio City CA

*     2000       Group Exhibition, The dA Gallery, Pomona CA

 

Though born in New York City, Christopher Cousins was raised in Oklahoma where he was greatly influenced by the various artistic expressions of American Indian cultures. As a teenager he traveled through Europe and saw immediately the connections between the religious yearning in European art and the spiritual themes in Native American expression.

 

After graduating with a BFA from Boston University Cousins moved to NYC and quickly became disillusioned:

“I wasn’t interested in social content, criticism or in pop imagery, I didn’t have a clever marketable angle nor did I want to come up with one.  For me, there was no reason to paint unless it was to address core existential issues. Maybe that’s an excuse, maybe I was just afraid, but I stopped painting.” He didn’t pick up a brush for over ten years.

 

Cousins has worked in various jobs over the years: as a bartender in NYC, a horse breaker and construction worker in Colorado; he was a part-owner of a bookstore in Mexico for a while. In the late 80’s he returned to NYC and has achieved some success as an actor.

Though he kept up with his drawing, the need to paint gnawed at him for years. Finally, something awakened in him and he found himself painting again. He let go of the need to understand why or what he was painting, he worked with no intention of showing; he just needed to work with paint. As Cousins describes it, “ I felt like I was working something out with each new piece…. Even now I never know exactly where a new work will take me. There is no map, no guide, only instinct and, one hopes, intellect to lead me.”

 

Christopher Cousins started showing his work in 2000 in the Los Angeles area. In 2004, he joined Pharmaka a group of like-minded L.A. based artists who “…believe in the power of painting as a visual and emotional language …to share our truths with the viewer through the very visceral act of painting.” In 2005, he participated in his first international exhibition in Venice, Italy. Cousins works with Bert Green Fine Art in LA, The Lowe Gallery  in Atlanta GA, with the Foster/White Gallery in Seattle WA.

 

Christopher now lives in Los Angeles with his wife, Laurie, his daughter, Sequoia, and his son, Sean.

 

For more information please email: Christopher Cousins

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