The Art of Chris Caleo

September 28 - October 10
Opening reception: Saturday, October 2, 3-6 pm

Visual artist Chris Caleo approaches his “Urban Deities” in a sacred manner, even when they at first appear to be less saintly and much more in keeping with our bleak profane sense of reality. His artistic process takes the rich traditions of ancient spiritual myth and connects that to the modern urban landscape. Drawing from his own experience in music, meditation and the martial arts, Caleo’s aim is to visually recapture lost symbols and unleash the powerful mystical force that is contained within them.

Hailing from New York City, Chris Caleo’s work has been influenced by his art mentors Avron Soyer, Nancy Chun, Toby Kahn, Peter
Hristoff, Steve DeFrank and Greg Coates. Many have claimed that he has Joseph Campbell written all over his work. In fact, Caleo believes that he is more of an altar builder than a painter. The countless details in his work come from the Tibetan mandala painting tradition of visual prayer and meditation. Both National Geographic and ABC News have highlighted Caleo as an emerging abstract figurative artist, who has successfully combined his spirituality with his creativity. He holds a black belt in Shotokan karate-do and has been the lead singer and songwriter for the popular NYC rock band Tom & Frayed. NBC’s “Homicide Life on the Street” has featured six of the band’s songs.

Caleo now devotes his entire time and energy to his spiritual paintings. For the Zeitgeist show, he will be showing his version of the ancient Haitian voodoo fertility goddess “Dhambala”, as well as his portrait of “Untreated Venus” and “Female Christ #2.” For more information on his work, log onto www.chriscaleo.com