Bio
John Christensen is an artist working in Austin, Texas. Born in New York City, he received a BA from Harvard, in Visual and Environmental Studies, and a MFA from the University of Texas. Before 1990, he developed a body of site-sensitive work in rural landscapes of New York, Georgia and Texas. Since 1990, he has focused that sensibility on projects for the theatre and the public place. He has created, in collaborations with choreographers, interactive props and theatrical environments for 30 productions presented in the Americas, Europe and Asia. He has designed and built commercial spaces, and unique and production furniture. He has completed 20 large scale public and private commissions in North America.
Currently, his primary gallery affiliation is with ELLIO Fine Art, in Houston. His primary gallery affiliation from 1991 to 2022, was with Gremillion & Co., in Houston. For many years, he showed work at Linda Fairchild Contemporary Art in San Francisco. Recently, he exhibited - with the painter Jana Swec - at Cloud Tree Gallery in Austin.
Statement
I design and make objects and spaces in public, private, theatrical and commercial arenas. For 3 decades I have successfully met thematic and practical challenges presented by clients and collaborators. I bring to these tasks experience with a broad range of materials and processes, and I seek design solutions that are poetic, integrative and surprising.
Inquiries into the realms of natural science, metaphysics, literature and history, inform my artistic practice. I have also endeavored to develop an artistic language that detours our cerebral filters and speaks directly to our bodies and unconscious.
For many years I borrowed plant and animal forms – seeds and sitting figures – to envelope small abundant worlds. They were physical works – first felt later thought – that claimed their own place, breath and posture. The last several years I have been making three-dimensional drawings that create imaginary spaces, that exploit perceptual incongruities to create emotional frisson, and that call attention to the ways we abstractly map physical and metaphysical terrains.
JOHN CHRISTENSEN
500 W St Elmo, Austin, Texas 78745
1988 M.F.A., The University of Texas at Austin
1977 B.A., Harvard University
Commissions / Awards
2021 701 Rio Grande commission, Austin, TX
2019 Vickery Meadows Library commission, Dallas, TX
2019 Forest Green Library commission, Dallas, TX
2019 Outposts commission, Bernalillo County, NM
2018 801 Barton Springs commission, Austin, TX
2015 Historic Handley Village commission, Fort Worth, TX
2015 2906 Rio Grande commission, Austin, TX
2014 Scouters Mountain Nature Park commission, Happy Valley, OR
2013 Apache Corporation commission, Houston, TX
2011 Fire Station #50 commission, Dallas, TX
2009 Behavioral Health Pavilion commission, Tucson, AZ
2007 Robertson architectural screen commission, Houston, TX
2006 Bathhouse Art Center commission, Dallas, TX
2006 Robertson wall commission, Houston, TX
2004 Overton-Turner-Roberts Memorial, Austin TX
2004 Florida International University commission, Miami, FL
2003 Roy C. Guerrero Colorado River Park commission – design team project, Austin, TX
2002 University of New Mexico – Health Sciences Center commission, Albuquerque, NM
2000 Dallas Area Rapid Transit - Park Lane Station commission, Dallas
1999 Hermann Children’s Hospital commission, Houston, TX
1995 Austin-Bergstrom International Airport commission, Austin, TX
1995 Art Matters Grant, New York, NY
1993 Waller Creek Plaza commission, Austin. TX
1992 City of Austin Cultural Contract - Interdisciplinary Program
1991 City of Austin Cultural Contract - Interdisciplinary Program
1988 Connemara Grant, The Connemara Foundation, Plano, TX
1981 Artist in Residence, Ossabaw Island, GA
Solo Exhibitions
2023 Breath: John Christensen & Jana Swec, Cloud Tree Gallery, Austin, TX
2014 John Christensen - sculptures, Wildflower Center, Austin, TX
2013 John Christensen - screens, Ginko Studios, Austin, TX
2011 Push down the dark water, Gremillion & Co., Houston
2007 John Christensen - Projects, Texas Lutheran University, Seguin, TX
2005 Difficult Loves, Gremillion & Co., Houston
2004 Unquiet Garden, Linda Fairchild Contemporary Art, San Francisco
2000 Asana, Gremillion & Co., Austin
1998 no kings no boxes no numbers, Wyndy Morehead Fine Arts, New Orleans
1997 Ekstasis, Gremillion & Co., Houston
1996 Substance, Helm Fine Arts Center, Austin
1995 Sculpture and Documents, Dougherty Arts Center, Austin
1993 Awkward Simple Volumes, Third Street Gallery, Austin
1993 Studio Intrusion, Texas Lutheran University, Seguin, TX
1991 Idas & his Brother, Installation, The Amarillo Art Museum, TX
Selected Publications
2016 Aaron Seward, "Campsite Rules", Texas Architect, Mar/Apr 2016, pp. 32- 37.
2007 Fred Bernstein, “House of the Rising Son”, Metropolitan Home, Nov 2007. pp.128-137.
2003 Heather Brand, “Place View Thought”, Tribeza, Jan 2003, pp. 24-26.
2000 J. van Ryzin, “Sculptor, collagist make winning pair”, Austin Amer. Statesman, 22 Jan, p. D7.
1995 R. Levy, “John Christensen...Public Perceptions“, The Austin Chronicle, 20 Jan 1995, p. 34.
1994 S. Goldman, “Sculpture Inspires Contemplation”, Austin Amer. Statesman, 16 Jul, p. XL11.
1993 Margaret Putnam, “Choreographers Dish Up Heady Lot”, Dallas Morning News, 09 Mar.
1992 Jack Anderson, “Dance in Review”, The New York Times, 14 Dec 1992.
1989 Patricia Hendriks & Becky Duval Reese, A Century of Sculpture in Texas 1889-1989, p. 108.
1988 Johanna Drucker, “Connemara: Spring 1988”, Dallas Arts Revue #26, Spring 1988.
Professional Activities
1989 - 2021 Designer and fabricator of furniture, architectural details and spaces. Production designs for Brink Design International. Commercial spaces include seven By George stores.
1993 - 2021 Designer of Theatre sets, lighting, inter-active props, and media projections in over thirty productions of modern dance - with choreographers Andrea Beckham, Yacov Sharir, and Jose Luis Bustamante - performed in the Americas, Europe and Asia. Projects include:
2016 Abundance, performed at the Emerald Theatre, Fringe Festival, Edinburgh, UK
2014 Faith in Unknowing, performed with World Dance Alliance at the Centre national de
danse contemporaine, Angers, France
2013 Light-Night / Bike-Light Dance Project, performed at the LBJ Library Plaza, Austin, TX.
2012 Blurred Boundaries – Section2: Gate, performed at the Payne Theatre, Austin, TX.
2005 - 2009 I served on the City of Austin Art in Public Places Panel, chairing that panel in 2007 and 2008. During my tenure we built a progressive City collection, funded temporary installations and new media, and increased community participation in the selection process.