Christian Culver

"All of my work evolves from an emotional response to something. The aesthetic portion comes later. I cannot see myself starting with an aesthetic goal without having the emotional aspect as its generator—it would be like cooking a great dinner without starting with the craving that informs what type of dinner it is going to be."

Christian Culver's work combines shape, color, and form in what he calls architectural "citygraphs." Each piece is an interpretation of physical reality—a map that offers a new way of looking at the world. Culver's background in architecture greatly influences his work. He believes that art and architecture go hand in hand, and that one cannot exist without the other. The overarching theme and goal of his work is for the viewer to be engaged—to see, think, analyze, stop, and absorb.

Culver's paintings always start with color as the inspiration. The photographs he chooses also influence the structure of a painting. He tries to make a two-dimensional painting feel three-dimensional by overlaying fields of color and by linking the photographs together with very fine line work. A line from one photo might travel underneath a field of color and reemerge to meet up with a photograph, implying a connection. What the connection is, is up to the viewer.

Christian Culver was born in the US, but spent his childhood in Germany, where his father was stationed for the Air Force. While in Europe, he was able to experience many spaces, cultures, people, and buildings that continue to influence his thinking to this day.

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