Abstraction With Volume.
by Christopher Durst
Large-scale abstract paintings shaped by experience, atmosphere, and process.
Most of my paintings begin without a fixed outcome. I work through instinct, layering, and response, allowing each piece to develop naturally rather than following a predetermined plan.
I am less interested in depicting a specific subject than creating a sense of presence. The paintings evolve through texture, experimentation, and discovery, revealing themselves over time.
The Work
My paintings are built through accumulation, revision, and response, but I am ultimately interested in what remains. Each work develops over time through layers of color, texture, gesture, and interruption, creating surfaces that feel both immediate and deeply lived in.
Rather than depicting a specific place, person, or event, the paintings create an atmosphere that invites interpretation. I am drawn to the tension between structure and spontaneity, clarity and ambiguity, allowing each piece to unfold through looking rather than explanation.
Working at a large scale allows the paintings to be experienced physically as well as visually. I want the work to hold a presence in a space, revealing different relationships, details, and emotional resonances over time.
Before The Canvas
Before painting, I spent years documenting music culture, paying as much attention to the atmosphere surrounding the moment as the moment itself. What began as observation through a camera eventually evolved into creating atmosphere through paint.
The Same Instinct
The photographs above reflect years spent exploring music, culture, and the people who shape them. While the subjects may have changed over time, the underlying interest remains the same: paying attention to atmosphere, experience, and the ways we connect to the world around us.
Different mediums. The same pursuit.
Select works are available for acquisition.
Let’s start a conversation.
Whether you’re interested in a commissioned work, exhibition opportunity, creative collaboration, or cultural project, use the form below to share your vision, ideas, and direction. Every project begins through dialog, atmosphere, and shared intention.