About
Chris Lael Larson is a Portland-based artist working in the overlap of photography, assemblage, and painting to create new perceptual experiences. He culls riches from the everyday absurd, forefronting the strange, ridiculous, and confounding ways we connect to each other, the things we consume, and the environments we inhabit.
Larson constructs temporary altar-like assemblages for the camera utilizing found objects, reclaimed materials, natural elements, cheaply-printed photographs, and paint to accentuate their latent qualities and reframe their meaning. He contrasts low-value materials and unrefined mark-making with a hyperreal lighting technique to create a final image that confounds expectations.
Chris' work is inspired by contemporary artists who use hybridized approaches to blur the boundaries between photography and other mediums: Daniel Gordon's peculiar tableaux constructed from inkjet prints of internet imagery, Lucas Blalock's unrefined illusory manipulations; or David Gilbert's touching temporary sculptural constructions.
While sharing similar thematic and formal qualities with these artists, Larson integrates his experience in music, advertising, and the plastic arts to layer abstracted brand designs and faux iconography with expressive mark-making and visual noise.
Chris has shown work in over 30 cities across the US, with notable exhibitions at the Berkeley Museum of Art, Portland Institute of Contemporary Art, and The Portland Art Museum NW Film Center. In 2020, he received a Grant from The Regional Arts and Culture Council to publish Cape Disappointment, a photo book that documents the visual vernacular of the distinctive towns of the coastal northwest — places where historical, cultural, commercial, and natural forces layer to create a confounding visual melange. Chris is a member of Carnation Contemporary and Wave Contemporary in Portland, Oregon. Chris received a BS in Earth Sciences and a BA in Photography from the University of California at Santa Cruz, where he was awarded the Irwin Scholarship for the Visual Arts.Select Exhibitions
2024
Beginner Nudes
Site Specific Installation
Content, Portland, OR
Bowers
Group Exhibition
Spring / Break Art Show, Los Angeles, CA
MÉLANGE
Group Exhibition
Nationale, Portland, OR
Beginner Nudes
Solo Exhibition
Fine Art Fruit, Portland, OR
Painting Over Photos of the Mall
Solo Exhibition
Never Lab, Portland, OR
2023
Going Steady
Group Exhibition
Carnation Contemporary, Portland, OR
A Very Queer Thing
Group Exhibition
Well Well Projects, Portland, OR
Painting Over Photos of the Mall
Solo Exhibition
Family Photo Studio, Portland, OR
Friends of Friends
Group Exhibition
Seattle Art Fair / Blue Sky, Seattle, WA
Friends of Friends
Group Exhibition
Carnation Contemporary, Portland, OR
Product Flows
Solo Exhibition
Carnation Contemporary, Portland, OR
Discarded Paintings
Solo Exhibition
Albina Press, Portland, OR
Chair
Group Exhibition
Home Gallery, Portland, OR
Sou’Wester Arts Week
Group Exhibition / Residency
Sou’Wester Arts, Longbeach, OR
Pacific Northwest Drawers
Group Exhibition
Blue Sky, Oregon Center for the Photographic Arts, Portland, OR
Unlearning
Group Exhibition
Family Photo Studio, Portland, OR
2022
Smart Objects / Flattened Images
Group Exhibition
Well Well Projects, Portland, OR
Second Light
Solo Photo Exhibition / Album Release
Half Court, Portland, OR
Light Conversation
Group Photography Show
Oregon Contemporary, Portland, Oregon
Sou’Wester Arts Week
Solo Exhibition / Residency
Longbeach, WA
2021
Cape Disappointment
Book Release / Exhibition
Half Court, Portland, OR
2020
Magdanele
Video / Performance
In collaboration with Emilie Sabath
Prototype, New York, NY
2019
45
Photography (Group Show)
Laundry, Portland, OR
2016
Yourself Through Others
Video Installation (Solo Show)
Wieden + Kennedy Gallery, Portland, OR
Pure Surface
Video Installation / Performance
Valentines, Portland, OR
2015
Magic Gardens
Group Exhibition
One Grand Gallery, Portland, OR
2014
Real People
Video Installation (Group Show)
Ace Hotel / The Cleaners, Portland, OR
2012
Alone With Others
Video Installation (Group Show)
Work Sound Gallery, Portland, OR
2011
Spirit Up
Video Installation
Portland Museum of Art NW Film Center, Portland, OR
2010
Blanket
Video Installation
Portland Institute of Contemporary Art TBA Festival, Portland, OR
2009
Photos and Photo Animations
Photography / Video Installation (Solo Show)
Igloo Gallery, Portland, OR
Nature Church
Video Installation / Performance
Ford Building, Portland, OR
2008
Have Nothing to Say
Performance / Video (Festival)
Portland Institute of Contemporary Art TBA Festival, Portland, OR
Naturalia
Video Installation
Berkeley Art Museum, Berkeley, CA
2007
Endless Ocean Endless Sky
Video Installation / Performance
In collaboration with Tahni Holt
Pacific Northwest College of Art, Portland, OR