"Christopher Mir is a master of many styles of painting, creating worlds that seem to come out of some kind of other universe. Birds, teeth, flowers, and figures populate Mir's Blakeian dreamscapes and postapocalyptic recovery scenes, creating an uncertain yet seductive world to dwell within."
Denise Markonish
Chief Curator
MASS MoCA
"Mir's paintings invite us to experience a series of paradoxical relationships and unsettling juxtapositions. His figures and landscapes are drawn from specific sources yet remain anonymous; his painting style is relatively tight and refined, but his works are emotionally evocative and resonant. Mir's narratives are equally complex and replete with provocative dichotomies such as, the mystical versus the physical, the spiritual versus the secular, and the primal versus the futuristic."Joanna Marsh
Curator of Contemporary Art
Smithsonian American Art Museum
Christopher Mir was born in 1970 in Baltimore, Maryland. He grew up in Camden, Maine, and now lives in Lincolnville, Maine.Christopher has had five solo shows in New York (four at RARE Gallery and one at Benrimon Contemporary). In addition he has had four solo exhibitions in Europe: at Galeria Senda in Barcelona, Schuster Gallery in Berlin, and two at TM Projects in Geneva. Christopher's paintings have also been exhibited at MASS MoCA, the Yale University Art Gallery, the Aldrich Museum of Contemporary Art, the Wadsworth Atheneum, and the deCordova Museum.
Major collections include the Yale University Art Gallery, Susan and Michael Hort, Simon Watson, Pamela Auchincloss, Matthew and Iris Strauss, Beth Rudin DeWoody, and Jeff Bezos.
In 2003 Christopher was awarded the Rhema Hort Mann foundation grant.
In 2010 he was commissioned to make a painting for the US Embassy in Zambia, Africa.
Essays/ reviews have appeared in the New York Times, Art Forum, Creative Europe, and Take Magazine.
STUDIO ASSISTANT POSITIONS:
Alan Magee 1986-1988
John Moore 1995-1997
Helen Frankenthaler 1999-2000EDUCATION:
MFA Boston University Boston, MA (1997)
BA Marlboro College Marlboro, VT (1992)
TEACHING:Adjunct Professor of Art (Painting) Manchester Community College 2017
Adjunct Professor of Art (Painting and Drawing) Norwalk Community College 2015
Graduate Advisor Maine College of Art 2010
Graduate Advisor Lesley University 2016 to present
Adjunct Professor of Art (2D Design and Color Theory) Southern Connecticut State University 2004-2008
VISITING ARTIST/ LECTURES:Saint Anselm College
Montserrat College of Art
The Lyme Academy College of Fine Arts
The New York Academy of Art
East Tennessee State University
SOLO PAINTING EXHIBITIONS:2024
From Now On, Conduit Gallery, Dallas, Texas
Endless, Carver Hill Gallery, Camden, Maine
2023
Miracles and Wonder, Pascal Hall, Rockport, Maine
2020
Dream Sequence, Conduit Gallery, Dallas, TX
2019
Gravity Goes Sideways, David Shelton Gallery, Houston, TX
2015
Giampietro Gallery Project Space, New Haven, CT
2013
Parallel Play, TM Projects, Geneva, Switzerland
Static Is Singing, Benrimon Contemporary, New York
2011
Perfect From Now On, TM Projects, Geneva, Switzerland
2010
Remembering the Future, Windsor Art Center, Windsor, CT
Vanishing Point, Montserrat College of Art, Beverly, MA
2009
Endgame, RARE Gallery, New York, NY
The Dream of You is Real, Galeria Senda, Barcelona, Spain
2008
Love Lives Forever, Schuster Gallery, Berlin, Germany
Director’s Choice: New Paintings by Christopher Mir, Silvermine, New Canaan, CT
2007
Dreams, Memories, Reflections, Matrix Gallery, Wadsworth Atheneum Hartford, CT
2006
Second Sight, RARE Gallery, New York, NY
2004
Hello Daylight, RARE Gallery, New York, NY
2003
New Work, Simon Watson’s loft, New York, NY
GROUP PAINTING EXHIBITIONS:2021
Reverie, Page Gallery, Camden, Maine
2019-2020
Suffering From Realness, curated by Denise Markonish, MASS MoCA, North Adams, MA
2015
Seven, curated by Leonie Bradbury, Montserrat College of Art, Beverly, MA
2014
Convergence: 60th Anniversary Alumni Exhibition at Boston University
2013
501-9 curated by Jonathan Beer and Lily Koto Olive, Clemente Soto Vélez Cultural & Educational Center in New York, New York
2012
Devin Dobrowolski & Christopher Mir, Aucocisco Gallery, Portland, ME
2010
A Separate Peace, McNeill Art Group Project Space, Tribeca, NY
2009
Full Circle: Ten Years of Radius, Aldrich Museum of Contemporary Art, Ridgefield, CT
Dear Traveler (2004), on view at the Yale University Art Gallery
(un)Spoken, Artspace New Haven, New Haven, CT
2008
Uneasy Prospects, John Slade Ely House, New Haven, CT
2006
Hypervision, curated by Denise Markonish, Westport Art Center, Westport, CT
2005
For the Birds, curated by Denise Markonish, Artspace, New Haven, CT
2004
Works on Paper (Gallery Artists), RARE gallery, New York, NY
2003
Collector’s Cabinet, curated by Simon Watson, Marc Selwyn Gallery, Los Angeles
Collective Conscious, curated by Simon Watson, Mavi, New York, NY
The Burnt Orange Heresy, curated by David Hunt, Space 101, Williamsburg, NY
Labor Day, curated by David Hunt, RARE, New York, NY
Proper Villains, curated by David Hunt, Art Space, New Haven, CT
2002
The Accelerated Grimace, curated by David Hunt, Daniel Silverstein Gallery, New York, NY
2001
Radius, The Aldrich Museum of Contemporary Art, Ridgefield, CT