Christopher Durst

Artist Statement

I paint as a way of exploring ideas that resist simple explanation. While my work is abstract, it is rooted in the belief that not everything meaningful can be described directly. I am interested in creating paintings that invite reflection rather than provide conclusions, allowing viewers to bring their own experiences and interpretations to the work.

Scale is central to my practice. I work large because I want my paintings to be experienced physically as well as visually. I want them to occupy space, hold attention, and reveal themselves gradually over time. What first appears as a single image becomes a network of gestures, textures, relationships, and tensions that continues to unfold through sustained looking.

Before painting, I spent years documenting music, culture, and life on the road as a photographer. That experience taught me to pay attention not only to the subject itself, but also to everything surrounding it: the atmosphere of a room, the character of a place, and the subtle moments that often go unnoticed. What I once explored through a camera, I now explore through paint.

For me, abstraction offers freedom. It allows me to work beyond narrative and representation while remaining connected to the complexity of lived experience. My paintings are not intended to provide answers. They are an invitation to slow down, look closely, and discover something that cannot be explained, only experienced.