Strand Gallery
October 8, 2022 - January 8, 2023
ArtWalk Reception
Saturday, October 8, 2022
6 – 9 PM
Artist talk at 6:30 PM
This exhibition is supported in part by a grant from Texas Commission on the Arts.
Kris Pierce
Party Line
Kris Pierce’s exhibition, Party Line, explores the intersection of virtual and physical identity through a real-time gathering of sources from social media platforms and across a series of new multi-media works and paintings. Concerned with how we project and perceive our own reality, Pierce reflects on the trend of main character syndrome; a TikTok phenomenon where people imagine and act out scenarios playing the “main character” in a fictionalized version of their lives. His works ask us to consider how aspects of self-assurance and confidence are understood in American culture, and how technology has the potential to transform healthy individualism into a type of harmful narcissism. Alongside his multimedia work Pierce also connects these themes through a series of paintings that reflect on identity and individualism in American culture, it’s history and ability to thread fictional archetypes into dangerous manifestations. Portraying a range of business-men types in reference to chauvinist cartoons of the 50’s and 60’s, the artist invokes stereotype to draw attention to aspects of interpersonal communication; small signifiers that point to class, aspiration, and social mobility. This glance back serves as a thoughtful reminder that identity is a social construct, regardless of how or when it is mediated.
Kris Pierce is an artist working in Fort Worth, Texas. The primary focus of his practice is the dynamic between our virtual and physical identities. His work examines themes such as power, value, narcissism, and states of consciousness within the context and through the lens of our modern digital world. Life, death, influence, authenticity, and relationships take on new meaning and forms in the digital realm, existing and thriving outside the norms of physical society. Pierce explore these themes in his work through a variety of emerging technologies such as virtual reality, 3-D modeling, game engines, and computer-generated video in addition to painting. He has exhibited internationally and nationally in museums, galleries, and public spaces, having had recent solo and group exhibitions at the Hiroshima Art Center, Japan; CICA Museum, Gyeonggi-do, South Korea; Gallerie Se Konst, Falun, Sweden; Reunion, Zurich, Switzerland; Sarasota Art Museum, Sarasota; The Old Jail Art Center, Albany, Texas; The Dallas Museum of Art; RL Window, Ryan/Lee, New York City and Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art / The Momentary, Bentonville Arkansas. Pierce received a BFA in Studio Art from the University of North Texas, Denton. His work is included in multiple public and private collections.
