USU Art Professor Christopher Terry Shows Paintings in New Mexico and Utah

Recent paintings by Utah State University professor and artist Christopher Terry are featured in a gallery exhibit in Santa Fe, N.M. The exhibit, “Secular Altars,” can be seen May 14-June 4 at the Convergence Gallery, 219 W. San Francisco, Santa Fe, N.M.
                Closer to home, Terry’s work is also included in the 40th Anniversary Show at the Brigham City Museum-Gallery. That exhibit runs May 29-June 30. The museum, which is a department of Brigham City Corporation, is located at 24 N. 300 West in Brigham City.
                Terry is a professor of art at USU and is a two-time Fulbright Scholar.
                In his art, Terry works in the still life tradition, drawing his subjects from the often-overlooked relics of everyday life, according to a Convergence Gallery press release.
                “Because of his ability to render light-suffused details with uncanny technical accuracy, Terry has frequently been called a ‘realist,'” the gallery press release said. “That term, however, doesn’t connote properly the rhythm he attempts to build in his work, a rhythm that, in his own words, ‘recalls the pace of ritual and dreams.’ Often these interiors have a feeling of abandonment and Terry relies on careful attention to light to transform these ‘egoless’ corners into ‘secular altars.'”
                Many of the paintings in the gallery show were completed during Terry’s recent sabbatical in Germany. During his sabbatical, Terry launched an arts and culture blog, “Forschungsjahr” (“Sabbatical Year”) at forschungsjahr.blogspot.com. During May and early June 2010, Terry is in Germany with a USU group in the Study Abroad program for a five-week trip.
                At USU, Terry is professor of art and teaches painting and drawing. He is also assistant department head and coordinator of the department’s graduate program. In addition to his Fulbright awards, he is a recipient of a WESTAF/NEA (Western States Arts Federation/National Endowment for the Arts) Regional Fellowship in painting as well as a Visual Artist Fellowship from the Utah Arts Council. He has been a visiting artist at the American Academy of Rome and at the Millay Colony in New York.
                Terry’s exhibitions include numerous solo shows at galleries that include the Hackett/Freedman Gallery in San Francisco, Calif.; Julie Nestor Gallery in Park City, Utah; Marshall Arts Gallery in Scottsdale, Ariz.; and Diane Nelson Fine Arts in Laguna Beach, Calif. Other solo exhibitions include “Stilleben” at Galerie Avia in Essen, Germany; “Artifacts and Interiors” at Hidell/Brooks Gallery in Charlotte, N.C.; “Enigmatic Ritual” at Nicolaysen Museum in Casper, Wyo.; and “Paintings” at the Plains Museum of American Art in Fargo, N.D. He has exhibited his work in more than 100 juried and invitational group exhibitions.