Chris Dyer (artist)

Life

Born in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada, Chris moved to Lima, Peru at age 4. Chris started skateboarding at 8 years old, and later started to surf at 12. By 14 years old e joined a soccer fan based street gang called "SepUlcro", who were fans of the Universitario de Deportes. Chris’ parents sent him to Canada to study in 1996, at age 17. He lived in Ottawa with his grandmother, where he attended Heritage College and University of Ottawa and during those years he was a heavy drinker and was very self-destructive. He moved to Montreal in 2000 to study Illustration at Dawson College. In the summer of 2001 he went tree planting, which directed Chris towards a pursuit of a much more spiritual path. Later in life Chris studied under (and later taught alongside) visionary masters, including Alex Grey, Robert Venosa, Martina Hoffman, Laurence Caruana, A. Andrew Gonzales, Maura Holden, and Amanda Sage. Traveling is a big part of Chris' explorative lifestyle, so to this day he has experienced over 30 countries. One of the countries where he had a solo exhibition was Belgium, where he met Valerie Lambert, whom he married in 2010, but then divorced in 2016.

Art career

Chris started his freelance art career locally, by doing art exhibitions in Montreal. It didn't take too long until his work started getting featured in magazines like Thrasher and High Times. This exposure got him further commercial commissions, along solo exhibitions in places like Peru, Mexico, Belgium and all across the United States and Canada. To this point, he has exhibited at galleries around the world, including Paris, Berlin, Tokyo, New York City, Denver and Los Angeles. He has shown with renowned artists such as Alex Grey, Shepard Fairey, Robert Venosa, H.R. Giger, and Romio Shrestha. He has also worked with skateboard art legends like Jim Phillips, Wes Humpston, and Andy Howell. Other than exhibiting he also travels to live paint at events and big music festivals like Burning Man (Nevada), Shambhala (British Columbia), and Boom (Portugal).

Chris launched his own brand, Positive Creations, in 2003, and offers a wide variety of products such as clothing, tapestries, books, backpacks, watches, DVDs, etc. In 2008, he filmed and co-directed a full feature documentary of his life with Dreamtime Cinema."Positive Creations" was released as DVD in 2010 and by now it is a widely seen movie on YouTube.

In 2011, Schiffer Publications released a 256-page, hardcover book, of his art. Following that was a coloring book for adults that was published by Last Gasp in 2016.

More recently he started offering painting workshops at local high schools in Montreal. This lead to offer workshops for artists in places like Italy, Bali and Australia. He now offers them at institutions such as the The Montreal Museum of Fine Arts, the The National Art Gallery of Canada, The Chapel of Sacred Mirrors and The Vienna Academy of Visionary Art. His latest workshop combines healing shamanic ceremonies, happening every December at Katari Center in Tarapoto (the jungle of Peru).

Skate art

Chris started skateboarding on Christmas of 1986 and still does today. It was in the year 2000 when he started doing his paintings on broken skateboards he had ridden and collected over the years. His recycled skate paintings made him stand out in the Montreal art scene and introduced his work to skateboarders around the world, mostly via skate magazines articles about it. In 2004, landed his dream job, doing skate graphics for Creation Skateboards, from San Francisco who had him over in California for many years. By 2011 Chris was promoted to the position of Art Director and Brand Manager for Creation Skateboards, a position he kept for 3.5 years, creating 6 different catalogs and directed the skate video "Soul Harmonics". Chris continues to freelance for a number of different skate brands and by now has done over 100 commercial skateboard graphics. On the fine art side of things, he does way less fine art board paintings, and has more recently moved into whole installations (like his "Skatebot Army") structed from reclaimed old skateboards.

Street art

Chris' first interaction with aerosols was in 1993, when he would tag many walls of Lima, Peru, where he would publicize the name of the street gang he belonged to (Sepulcro Crema). Chris younger brother Patrick (aka Peru 143) later started doing graffiti, so Chris stayed away from that medium for many years, as to avoid brotherly competition. It was later in 2007, when the brothers became roommates in Montreal, that they started to jam in their backyard and Chris got addicted to that medium. These days, spray paint is one of Chris' main mediums, especially in the outdoor seasons and while on the road. His intentions are to beautify the world and leave his trace as he explores the globe. You can find many of Chris's bright colorful murals all over the planet. Though Chris' favorite jams are organically organized block parties, he has also been invited to paint murals for well respected festivals like MURAL Festival and Art Basel Miami.

Publications