Cedric Christie
b. 1962, United Kingdom
Cedric Christie is a London-based artist who trained originally as a welder. His current studio, housed within a commercial metal fabrication factory, is located in the East London suburb of Dagenham – historically the home of the Ford Motor Factory.
Christie uses found industrial materials such as phenolic resin snooker balls, scaffolding pipes, coupler clamps, stainless steel channel, steel U-channel and cellulose automotive paint to make sculptures that mirror daily life while simultaneously exploring the boundaries of modernism and minimalism.
Christie had his first solo exhibition at Rocket – What’s the point of looking but not touching? – in September 2001. The focus of this exhibition was a series of captivating ‘Curve’ sculptures assembled from stainless steel channels in which phenolic resin snooker balls were held under tension.
The sell-out exhibition 1/2 empty or 1/2 full? followed in May 2003. Christie addressed the relationships of form, colour and material in a series of wall-mounted sculptures assembled from scaffolding pipes, spray-painted in solid hues and installed at diagonals. These pieces transformed a mundane structural support into aesthetic objects which recalled the colour experimentation and dynamism of early twentieth-century minimalism.
These two solo exhibitions at Rocket – together with projects at Art Chicago (1999) and Art Forum Berlin (2001) – brought Christie international recognition. In the subsequent two decades he has exhibited in the United Kingdom, Belgium, Germany, Italy, Croatia and the USA. His work can be found in significant institutional and corporate collections including Art Gallery of Nova Scotia, Canada; Derwent London, UK; Brown Rudnick, Boston/London; BUPA, London; and Groucho Club, London. Recent commissions include substantial sculptures in contemporary architectural settings at 4o Strand, London and The Peak, Victoria, London.