Chris Trueman: Dividing the Light

Dividing the Light synthesizes the static noise of digital spaces into tangible forms of complicated mark-making, dense gradients, and indeterminate layers of paint. Full of texture, his vibrant paintings seek to bring materiality to the intangible world. Alternating between numerous articulations of positive and negative space, Trueman’s combination of spray paint, gestural painting, and the tactful obscuring of layers, blurs compositions into endless depths.

“Abstraction must tackle multiplicity and change as a permanent state. Presence in the 21^st century means to acknowledge the simultaneity of being both here and there and that our initial introduction to people, culture and information is often first through a layer of illusion. In this mindset my paintings bounce back and forth between illusion and physical reality.” — Chris Trueman

Chris Trueman graduated from the San Francisco Art Institute in 2003, earning dual BFA degrees in Painting and Digital Media. He relocated to southern California to attend Claremont Graduate University, earning a MFA in 2010. Trueman currently teaches at Chaffey College and has previously taught at Chapman University, Fullerton College and Santa Ana College. He has guest lectured at Chapman University, Pomona College and Santa Ana College and was a Northrup Grumman Visiting Artist/Scholar at the Museum of Art and History Lancaster. Trueman has exhibited his work in numerous exhibitions in Los Angeles, San Francisco, Washington DC, Portland and internationally in Milan, Paris, Berlin, Beijing and Brisbane (AUS).