Christopher Irvin

Irvin is an interdisciplinary visual artist. He earned his Bachelor of Fine Arts from Michigan State University and completed his Master of Fine Arts at the Art Institute of Boson.

Prior to coming to Nebraska in 2016, he was a UI and UX Applications Developer and Instructional Designer for Michigan State University’s IT Services: Teaching and Learning Technology.

His most recent exhibitions include “Anecdoche” in the Glenn Korff School of Music in 2019 and “All is Fair in Art and Politics” at the E.B. White Art Gallery in El Dorado, Kansas.

In 2019 he received the Hixson-Lied Outstanding Lecturer Award.

In his artist statement on his work, Irvin wrote:  “Today’s human existence is one of rapid cultural evolution, continuous technological advances, and the blurring of what once were easily definable boundaries. I am a product of and currently exist in this continually evolving landscape; therefore, a diverse and complex range of sources informs my art. The majority of these sources emanate from popular culture, life experiences, and interests such as technology, science, and video games. As a result, my work has become hyper-saturated with layers of complexity in an attempt to combine all that fascinates me into one singular experience.

“Visually my work is surreal, and I use contradiction to instill feelings of repulsion and attraction, ugliness and beauty, all the while enticing the viewer to cautiously approach and reluctantly interact. My work invites a multitude of approaches, particularly with discovery and playfulness as important components of both my process and the viewer’s experience of the work. Construction, craft, and technique are central to my process and I invite viewers to explore the relationships between fine art and commercial precision.

“As an artist primarily concerned with hybridization, my relationship to the various media I use must be both careful yet unconstrained. In this way, voluptuous saccharine pink rubber, computer hardware, and thousands upon thousands of dried flies have become the surface of some of my explorations. Underlying that facade, the true medium is hybridization itself, and that is the binding principle and fundamental medium to which I adhere.”