Elsewhere, in the quiet provinces the artist can easily find himself surrounded by melancholias. Lost in thought he sits at the secluded windows of his medieval digs, a strange twilight flowing all about him, and without so much as stirring he sends his daydreams out onto the sweeping landscape. No one comes. Nothing disturbs his reverie. An inexpressible silence rules the surrounds.
Robert Walser
Two Tree Island, Essex, 2018
Christopher Gee (b.1987) is a British artist from Portsmouth, England. He lives and works on the Thames Estuary, Essex. His small scale works on paper explore stillness and isolated scenes. His paintings are informed by historic houses and landmarks, often forgotten or overlooked sites of familiarity and intrigue. Walking and collecting are key to his practice.
His graphic yet naïve-looking paintings, conjure places both historical and imagined, taking us on a fragmented journey through forested landscapes, vernacular architecture, and archaic towers. The intimacy and execution of these paintings convey themes of silence and solitude.
His influences include Northern Renaissance painting, Folk Art, the Romantic landscapes of Caspar David Friedrich and the naive paintings of Alfred Wallis. He also takes inspiration from the novels of Hermann Hesse and W.G. Sebald.
Gee has sold his work to clients such as Paul Smith and Liberty London as well as showing at Paris Fashion Week in 2019 in collaboration with menswear brand UNIFORME-Paris. His work is also held in private collections around the world.
His book ‘Into the Night’ was published in 2018 by New Heroes and Pioneers, a Scandinavian publishers based in Malmo, Sweden.
EXHIBITIONS
Elsewhere, Solo show Hawk and Hive, Andes, Upstate New York
16th March - 16th April 2024
Abbot and Holder, London
1st March 2024
Conduit Gallery, Group show, Dallas, Texas, US
2023 Dec 2 - 30
Small is Beautiful, Flowers Gallery, Cork Street, London
Nov 2023 - Jan 2024
FRMD, Group show, Leyton, London
Sept 2023
FRMD, Winter Group show, Clapton, London
2022
Small is Beautiful, Flowers Gallery, Cork Street, London
Nov 2022 - Jan 2023
Small is Beautiful, Flowers Gallery, Cork Street, London
2021
Winter Show, Amanda Aldous Gallery, Hampshire
2021
Winter Exhibition, 155a Gallery, Dulwich, London
7 Dec 2020 — 23 Jan 2021
Small is Beautiful, Flowers Gallery, Cork Street, London
Dec 2020 — Jan 2021
Sophie Breitmeyer, The Art Registry, London
2020
Our Home, The Table Hay, Hay-On-Wye, Wales
2020
Places Dreamed/Real, Studio E Gallery, Seattle, US
2020
Small is Beautiful, Flowers Gallery, Cork Street, London
2019 - 2020
Present Day, Candida Stevens, Chichester, West Sussex
2019
Paris Fashion Week Collaboration with Uniforme-Paris
2018
Absence / Presence, Galerie La Boucherie, Brittany, France
2018
Liberty, London
2017
Paul Smith, Mayfair, London
2017
Elsewhere, Solo Show Conduit Gallery, Dallas, Texas, US
2017
Vanishing Point, James Freeman Gallery, London
2016
The Silk, James Freeman Gallery, London
2016
Into the Night, Solo Show, James Freeman Gallery, London
2015
40 Contemporary British Painters, The Crypt Gallery, London
2014
The Winter Garden, James Freeman Gallery, London
2014
The Last Man, James Freeman Gallery, London
2014
Parcours d'Artistes, Saint-Gilles Culture, Brussels
2014
Wimbledon MA Drawing Interim Show, The National Gallery, London
2012
RESIDENCIES
Residency 108, Germantown, Upstate New York
Autumn 2018
EDUCATION
MA Drawing UAL Wimbledon College of Art London, 2012
BA Drawing UAL Camberwell College of Art London, 2010
Fine Art Foundation UAL Byam Shaw School Central Saints Martins London, 2007