We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Chris Ulivo a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Chris , appreciate you joining us today. We’d love to hear the story of how you went from this being just an idea to making it into something real.

I think this is a big problem. If you figure out some method that truly works for you in the studio, this is something to protect. My instinct is also that it’s probably something not to analyze too much. If I can help it at all, I avoid bringing solid ‘ideas’ into the studio at all, I need some mystery and some friction to get anywhere interesting and sadly, if you make something even remotely interesting you might be asked about it.

I lie a lot about my work. Whomever asks, I try to think what they want to hear about: material, art historical references or personal biography (I’m always wrong about this). My descriptions never quite jive with what is interesting about the paintings; everyone walks away disappointed.

The best short term job I ever had was immediately after I finished my MFA. Unemployed and back in New York, my cousins offered to let me work as a laborer for their electrical contractor company. In November, I was working on Rikers Island Prison, digging ditches by hand. A correction officer is assigned to watch you work, prisoners curse you out from their windows endlessly, and I just dug straight lines in the dirt. After two years of grad school, this was fantastic!

Two-thirds of the Island was made of landfill from the twenties and thirties. I would dig up medicine bottles, busted crockery and other odd treasures seven hours a day. I spent the Wednesday before thanksgiving throwing chopped-up boulders of concrete into the East River, enlarging the island a little bit.

Grad school prepared me to understand that this temporary (and objectively terrible) job as being the embodiment of my ideal work process: Get yourself into an interesting space, be an outsider to it, uncover something interesting up and enlarge the whole story.

As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your background and context?

Chris Ulivo (b. 1977), I live and work in Ventura, CA and Spoleto, Italy.

I’m a native of Staten Island, New York. I’m from a large Italian-American family mostly blue-collar. I came to art late, just in time to apply for college thanks to some formative art courses art Cooper Union in 1993. I received an MFA from Rhode Island School of Design (04′ paint) and a BFA from the Tyler School of Art, Temple University (99′ paint) .

I primarily make egg tempera paintings, which imagine the confluences and collisions of fate, myth and the unintended consequences of unlimited wish fulfillment.

In the course of my career, I havs both exhibited and organized shows across the United States and Europe including: Solo shows at Half Gallery Los Angeles; Track16 Gallery, Los Angeles, Susan Inglett Gallery, New York and group exhibitions with Axel Obiger, Berlin; Museum of Contemporary Art Santa Barbara; The Felix Art Fair Los Angeles; The Armory Show, New York.

What do you think is the goal or mission that drives your creative journey?

My mission is to be a generous and informed member of whichever art community I find myself in. My goal is to find the most interesting art communities in which to participate, show work and learn from.

Has your business ever had a near-death moment? Would you mind sharing the story?

I am from the generation which began showing in the early 2000’s and were pretty severely affected by the wall street crash of 2008. I entered the second week of my largest solo show right as Lehman Bros collapsed. This was a close call of sorts, the show was a success more or less but the real lesson I learned from this was that relying on gallerists or collectors to have undue influence on your status as an artist is foolish. The public facing aspects of showing work must be a collaborative process in which all parties protect their interests.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://christopherulivo.com/
• Instagram: christopherulivo

Image Credits

Chris Ulivo