JA Your work is incredibly abstracted, we would love to know what inspires you to make these beautifully altered forms?
CE Nature. Life. And no plan B. Ever since I decided to go to art school back in the late Eighties, I’ve single mindedly pursued the idea of making art, and working in a studio, as a daily practice. I’ve been lucky enough to have a succession of good studio spaces to work in since I graduated in the early Nineties, first in London, and now in Bristol.
A studio should present an opportunity to work, to read, to study, and to reflect. I tend to think of art as study nowadays, a kind of research project, a visual distillery for thoughts, ideas, and explorations. I love to think about new sculptural forms, ideas that I’m currently visualising, or planning to draw, and have a constant list of pieces I’d like to make.
In essence, I’m working with the most basic of things, line, light, colour, and form, to create works that abstract ideas about the world that surrounds us. For me, despite the fact we’re all taught to work with words and language at school, the real world lives in my mind through colour and form, life is primarily a visual experience, not a linguistic one.
I hope the end results evoke some beauty and some kind of poetry. It’s not my intention to overpack the work with overt references and meanings. I like the idea that art exists in the space between the work and the viewer. That’s where the energy is. There has to be some room for interpretation, for people to bring their own thoughts and feeling into the space, and layer it up with reference to their own experiences… read more…
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Interview with Jamie Aherne, Blacwater Gallery, April 2020
About / Interviews and essays /
Modular Locus
In conversation with Freeny Yianni
A solo show at The Brewhouse Gallery, Taunton
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March 2020
Chuck Elliott has selected a little over twenty works to be exhibited at the Brewhouse Gallery in Taunton, in conjunction with the launch of his new book 12. The selection encompasses many of the more intriguing works to come out of his studio over the past twelve years.
Initially based in London’s Soho, Chuck moved his studio to Bristol in 2005 and has been working full time on his sublime studies in liquid geometry ever since. He enjoys a reputation as one of the UK’s foremost digital printmakers and has exhibited works in over 200 shows and events both in the UK and internationally.
Chuck Elliott produces works that hover between traditional printmaking, contemporary abstract photography, and the digital realm. Using the latest systems based drawing tools, he draws, sculpts, and refines works that are concerned with the most fundamental building blocks available to the artist; colour, line, form, and light… read more…
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Curated by Freeny Yianni and CLOSE Ltd, in association with The Brewhouse.
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HC Tell us about your background?
CE I started as an art student in 1984 I think, studying illustration at Bath Technical College, and went from there to a Foundation year, followed by a BA (Hons) degree, so seven years at college in all. My BA was at the old Hornsey School of Art, now amalgamated into Middlesex University. Personally, I would’ve been in favour of the UK retaining it’s independent network of art schools, I don’t think they are or should be departments in larger universities. Historically British art schools have often been absolute powerhouses of contemporary artistic and political thinking, and are more than capable of standing alone in my opinion!
That said, I was delighted to graduate in ’92 with a First class Hons degree, and from there I moved straight into Soho’s art and design scene. I cut my teeth at Ace studio, which later became CRS, a kind of graphics production facility, for a couple of years before launching DaÏs studios on Great Marlborough Street, then Flux studio on Greek Street, and most recently the Transistor project, which started life as an artist’s collective, and vehicle for both curating and representing new work, mostly by established artists from the South West… read more…
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Helena Cardow, TAG Fine Arts, November 2018
JLS How did you become an artist, and where did you start your artistic training?
CE No idea! How does anyone ‘become an artist’. I think the question is, in some ways, a false premise. I think we can all be artists at different points in our lives, if and when we choose to be. Making art and being an artist are clearly two different disciplines though, two different mindsets.
I guess I’ve only just recently begun to feel that I am an artist, previously I used to think of myself as a maker, or someone who creates artwork, which is an equally interesting proposition of course, but with subtly different goals. A more design oriented focus perhaps, less cerebral, more about making.
Working as an artist is clearly different from that, it’s a whole way of being, more exploratory, less focused on the finished object. It involves, in no particular order: creating you own visual language and learning to speak it fluently; maintaining a creative practice over a sustained period of time; building a body of work that somehow progresses that language, hopefully in new and distinct directions; creating a place in time and space where you can research, study, consider and learn, as new thinking is at the core of good practice.
This is quite distinct from the act of making, in which materials and process may be most, if not all, that's required to create an object that may seem to be art, but which may in fact lack intention; intention which is in and of itself the pivotal component needed to create engaging art.
As a studio based artist, I’m fascinated by the idea of maintaining a creative space over the longer term, to really settle in to the process and develop new work. Not that a space has to be physical of course, it may be a place in time, or simply a continuum of thoughts held together solely in the mind of the practitioner; there has to be progression, informed decision making, risk taking, and failure, to progress and sustain a worthwhile body of work… read more…
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An interview with Jess Lloyd-Smith, Modern Art Buyer, June 2018
About / Interviews and essays /
Current
Tim Green
Catalogue foreword to accompany Current, a solo show of new and recent works at The Catto Gallery, Hampstead.
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October 2017
What’s the right way to describe a Chuck Elliott work of art? How best to explain the explosion of geometric ideas he commits to his fascinating geometric studies? Well, maybe not by thinking in visual terms at all. Rather, by perceiving them musically.
Chuck himself thinks so. He believes electronic music pioneers are addressing big fundamental questions about form, space, and harmony. They are (literally) synthesisers. And so, in a way, is he. “There’s a bridge between the digital techniques I’m using, and the way contemporary sound has been sculpted,” he says. 'I like the idea of contemporary abstraction as visually synonymous with the pace and dynamism of modern music...' read more…
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Tim Green, October 2017
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Read the full text ⟶
About / Interviews and essays /
A Fresh Perspective
Bridget Sterling
Catalogue foreword to accompany Lucid / RMX, a solo show of new and recent works at The Catto Gallery, Hampstead.
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March 2017
Chuck Elliott overlaps the precision and order of symmetrical geometry with mesmerizing digitally drawn non-repeating patterns. He explores notions of contemporary drawing using a high-end computing system and the latest digital drawing tools. His vibrant prints are energetic yet rhythmically soothing; pools of colour ripple, whilst smooth chromatic ribbons flow with electronic clarity, sheening like a lacquered metallic surface. There is reference to psychedelia in the visual indulgence of Elliott’s work, but it is rooted intellectually by his meticulous attention to detail and the mathematical application of numeric formulae and 3D simulation programmes.... read more…
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Bridget Sterling, March 2017
About / Interviews and essays /
Lucid / RMX
Tim Green
Catalogue foreword to accompany Lucid / RMX, a solo show of new and recent works at The Catto Gallery, Hampstead.
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January 2015
What is a contemporary artist to do, when advances in digital technology make it possible to ‘output’ virtually anything? Just a generation ago, visual artists were the keepers of the flame. They alone, through handwork and natural ability, could create the images that move us.
They still can, of course. Those who wish to paint and sculpt in the ‘analogue’ media remain as relevant as ever (talent permitting). But for artists intrigued by the possibilities of digital manipulation, fundamental questions remain: How much can I modify before I lose my original vision? When is a project actually finished? How much of the work is ‘me’, and how much is the software?
Chuck Elliott wrestles with these questions every day. Almost alone among contemporary British artists, he’s finding answers... read more…
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Tim Green, January 2015
About / Interviews and essays /
TouchScreen
James Freeman
Foreword and press release for TouchScreen, a two man show with Matthew Small, at The James Freeman Gallery, Islington.
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February 2014
Look around you in a public place, and almost everyone will be somewhere else, lost in their own virtual otherwhere. This is the digital future: absent communication. TouchScreen sets out to look at that gap we fall into between the physical and the virtual, using the work of two very different artists: Matthew Small, a painter of raw tactile portraits of urban youth, and Chuck Elliott, a digital artist who gives structure and colour to the digital ether. Somewhere in between is where we spend an increasing part of our lives - somewhere between touch and the screen.
Chuck Elliot’s digital paintings have a slickness and glow that is as enticing as a next gen smartphone. Chuck starts from a base of logical algorithms, and develops exquisite, lyrical patternings that glow in a myriad of vivid colours. A bit like music turned into light, his paintings have a hypnotic quality that somehow reflects how emotive technology has become a part of our daily lives. The impulse to connect, the desire to grab the phone and touch the screen: Chuck’s paintings are like the urge to slide into cyberspace..… read more…
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James Freeman, February 2014
About / Interviews and essays /
Generator / process and progress
Tim Green
Catalogue foreword to accompany Generator / Process and Progress, a solo show of thirty two new and recent works at The Catto Gallery, Hampstead.
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December 2012
In 1959 the British scientist and writer CP Snow gave a famous lecture entitled ‘The Two Cultures’ in which he reasoned that ‘the intellectual life of the whole of western society’ is divided into two discrete parts: science and the humanities. He went on to despair at the schism, and argued that it actually holds back human progress. That lecture is still referred to today, probably because very little has been done to close that gap and the issue remains relevant
This month at The Catto Gallery, you can see another fine example of the fusing of Snow’s ‘two cultures’. We’re pleased to welcome back, for the second time, the strange and wonderful work of Chuck Elliott.
In his arresting, digitally created images, Chuck – not unlike composer Glass – uses scientific ideas to generate lyrical visual poetry. Chuck’s images begin as rudimentary sketches and observations, of natural and geometric forms, which he finesses into kaleidoscopic adventures in line and colour. He thinks deeply about the work, building each layer with tremendous deliberation (in this collection, Radial 3 was drafted 70 times, each study building from and elaborating on the preceeding version). And there is often a complex geometrical dimension to this decision-making: he’s interested in symmetry, asymmetry and the fundamental patterns of nature. For example, the Fibonacci number sequence (1,1,2,3,5,8,13,21 etc), which underpins everything from the structure of a pine cone to the shape of a breaking wave and the spiralling arm of a galaxy, drives the geometry in his ‘Collider’ series… read more…
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Tim Green, December 2012
About / Interviews and essays /
Synaesthetic
Aidan Quinn, Beaux Arts Gallery
Preface for the exhibition catalogue Synaesthetic, to accompany a solo show of recent work at The Beaux Arts Gallery.
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February 2012
Synaesthesia, suggested by the title, refers in this case to the psychological experience of experiencing music as colour, suggesting perhaps a similarity in the way modern compositions by Philip Glass (in a piece such as ‘Openings’), Steve Reich or Arvo Pärt, say, ﾠare constructed - an underlying basic arrangement with layers of detail gradually laid on top to create a strangely moving and complete whole.
The drawings also echo the meandering motifs of the Safavid mosques of Isfahan, or the polychromatic configurations one might associate with psychedelia, or a child’s kaleidoscope toy. At times in awe of the Fibonacci sequence, the inspiration may be more prosaic, like the sliver of colour in a child’s marble that forms the basis of ‘Flow’... read more…
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Aidan Quinn, February 2012
About / Interviews and essays /
The Hum / BCFM
Lynette Quinlan
Chuck Elliott in conversation with Lynette Quinlan, transcribed from an interview on BCFM. Broadcast shortly after the opening of Kinetic at The Bristol Gallery.
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May 2011
LQ Okay, I think that’s really interesting that you mentioned that you draw them on the computer, because I think a lot of people when they see computer art or think about computer art, digital art, they think that the artist’s skill has somehow, is somehow being done by the computer? And a lot of people still think that drawing is kind of the pinnacle of the artist’s skill. But you’re saying that you draw with the computer?
CE Yes. I think both of those are true. Drawing is, probably, the pinnacle of the artist’s skill, and certainly the computer is being used as a tool for drawing. Obviously some people think that drawing will always be charcoal or pencil on paper, and other people think drawing is more of an activity about line making, and really what I’m doing is I’m making lines in a three dimensional space, in a kind of sculptural way, so I’m describing shapes using line, and then choosing views of those drawings and using those as the basis for the new images.
I think the drawing process is about examining the line, exploring the line, making the line, making the mark, making the expressive marks and getting them onto the paper. So I do call it drawing, but obviously the computer does make that controversial. Computing really is a modern way to make marks which I totally embrace, other people eschew, and you have to choose for yourself whether you think it’s a valid tool. It does allow you to edit, re edit, colour, recolour, move and really get to exactly where you want to get to in terms of image making, and you know, employ these amazing new tools in a creative way... read more…
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Lynette Quinlan, May 2011
About / Interviews and essays /
The Chancy Element
In conversation with Matthew Collings
Chuck Elliott and Matthew Collings in conversation at Close House. The resulting interview was published in the show catalogue Coda at Close, designed by Herman Lelie, with photography by Stephen White. Coda at Close was curated and hosted by Freeny Yianni, Close Ltd.
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February 2011
MC I can see the images are computer generated. I respond to the intricacy, rhythms, playfulness, but I’ve no idea what technical processes are involved. I see very beautiful visual relationships, and I imagine from their intensity that creating them involves a high degree of labour, as with any artistic process, and in fact, it’s basically drawing...?
CE Yes, every part of the image is hand drawn. You know those animated 3D films, you look at the credits at the end, a list of the names of five thousand people who spent four years drawing everything, and you think, Oh God, look at the sheer volume of work. I think my process has a similarity to that, years of drawing form, shape, geometry, and so forth. But you could argue about whether what I do is really drawing or not. Both my brothers are artists. And we have a lively debate all the time. One of them tells me that drawing is always “pencil on paper.”
MC I suppose he’s talking about many things that might go into the notion of drawing, including mythology and history, and so on, a cultural idea and not simply the technical thing. Whereas when you say you’re “drawing” you’re describing what you do for hours and hours, carefully building, refining, repeating, altering and adjusting, which is certainly what drawing usually meant for the majority of artists in the past. I think if your brother is being philosophical without realising it, then you’re a bit philosophical too in your designs. You come up with variations on an idea of symmetry, and the effect of all that serious consideration, those critical revisions, is that every shape has its own particularity but is also contributing to an overall dynamic balance – you’re testing out symmetry’s appeal. I feel the pleasure I’m getting from the work is connected to life, to nature, how the mind organises reality.... read more…
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Matthew Collings, Februray 2011
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About / Interviews and essays /
Fluid Dynamic
Louise Copping
Chuck Elliott in conversation with Louise Copping. An interview originally published by Art of England magazine as part of the cover feature 'Fluid Dynamic, Chuck Elliott and the Transistor Project'. Art of England, Issue 60.
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August 2009
LC You use terms such as ‘liquid geometry’, ‘captured light’ and ‘brilliant incandescence’ to describe your practice. Can you expand on these phrases?
CE I guess they’re a kind of linguistic shorthand to sum up the core of what I’m going for at the moment. Digital drawing systems allow you to create dense sculptural forms that haven’t previously been possible. Geometries can be far more complex than they could even ten years ago.
Zaha Hadid’s practice, for instance, is a textbook example of how technology is changing the way we can explore form. Studying glass making, I became aware that Dale Chihuly, for example, creates a colour and kinetic interaction with light in his work, that I’m definitely keen to evoke. So trying to capture some of that effervescence and brilliance, by exploring light and colour densities, and embedding that drama in the work, is a key part of the process... read more...
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Louise Copping, August 2009
About / Interviews and essays /
Crack magazine
In conversation with Jake Applebee and Tom Frost
Chuck Elliott in conversation with Jake Applebee and Tom Frost of Crack magazine, ahead of the now influential magazine's first issue.
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Summer 2009
Chuck’s art is an homage to the power of the computer. Using the wonders of CGI, his canvas is the computer and a total nod to the magic of the machine. Engaging, hypnotic and unmistakably modern, images swirl and colours collide in a beautiful series of arrangements that confound the brain and pulse.
Futuristic and sense pounding, Chuck’s initial wandering into this particular strain of the art world has its origins firmly rooted in the computer, as he explains: “One night in 1984 a friend and I made an illicit late night visit to a software development company in Bath. She was working there and had seen the future; the first Apple computer to be imported into the UK. We were blown away. Sitting on a huge desk was a small beige box that allowed you to draw a black line on a white screen, using a device called a mouse. I was sold...” read more...
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Jake Applebee and Tom Frost, 2009