Opening Reception: Thursday, April 5, 6 - 8pm
Artists Talk: Saturday, April 21, 11 am.

Diane Farris Gallery is pleased to announce an exhibition of paintings by Chris Woods entitled Decade.

The exhibition looks back at ten years of the artists "take" on popular culture by gathering together some of his best known paintings of the '90's - many borrowed from private and corporate collections as well as a select few of his commissions never before shown to the public.

In addition to works from 1990 to 2000, his most recently completed Billboard, 2001 will be shown. Billboard is a 6 x 8 foot mixed-media work made to resemble a double-sided highway billboard which leads the way into his next body of work "The Magic Hour" in which he will deal with car culture and auto advertising.

The core theme in his work - the subtle effects of consumerism on the individual as a reflection of its effect on society as a whole - has held to his main thesis: to paint himself and his friends throughout their lives in the setting of Popular Culture. It has been amusing to those who have followed his work to watch these 19 year olds (in his first paintings) mature into 30 year olds. Chris, for example, has gone from long, flowing hair to slightly balding!

The exhibition brings back such key works as: Our Cakes and Pies are Simply Delicious, 1991; Cola Wars: A Tale of Two Sodas, 1993; McDonald's Nation, 1996 & Krispie Kreme, 2000 (Cover commission for Saturday Night magazine). Also shown will be several preparatory works from his 1994 commission to paint The Stations of the Cross for St.David's Anglican Church in Vancouver as well as the painting which inspired the commission, KFC-FLG on loan from the Kamloops Art Gallery for this exhibition.

Chris Woods was born in Newcastle, New Brunswick in 1970 in and lives and works in Chilliwack. Chris first exhibited in Vancouver at Artropolis 90 in the fall of 1990 and in January 19991 in Gallery Invitational at the Diane Farris Gallery, where he has been exclusively represented thereafter.

Currently Chris is preparing for a touring exhibition that will be shown at Colorado State University's Clara Hatton Gallery and Appleton Museum of Art at Florida State University among others.

SELECTED MEDIA: Woods was selected as one of Macleans Magazine's "100 Canadians to Watch" in its July, 1993 issue. Made up of men and women aged 30 and under, the list noted "They are the ones on the cusp of greatness, young leaders who are already earning the respect of their elders". He was later featured in the Summer, 1997 issue of Canada's Saturday Night Magazine in the article: A New Group of Seven. He also had a painting (Cola Wars) featured in the December 1997 issue of New York-based Harper's Magazine as well as paintings featured on the covers of the 1998 spring issues of Adbusters Magazine and Geist Magazine. In May of 1998, Woods was profiled on Daniel Richler's Big Life on CBC Newsworld. His painting McDonald's Nation was featured in two books published in 1999; Naomi Klein's 'No Logo' and Kalle Lasn's 'Culture Jam-The Uncooling of America' as well as the 1999 edition of Adbusters annual Enviro-Mental Calendar. In January 2000, Woods was featured in Macleans Magazine's as one of 100 Canadians to watch. In February of 2000 He appeared alongside 'Generation X' author Douglas Coupland on the CPAC channel television program Doubletake in an hour-long conversation about Popular Culture. The May/June issue of Azure Magazine featured Chris in an article "Consumer Communion".

FOR FUN: http://www.120seconds.com/index2.cfm This is, as Chris states, "really cool" It might take a bit of searching. Go to 'Features' and then to 'More Features'. In a feature called 'Ad Nauseum', check out 'Vox Populi' where Chris has recorded some "funny comments" about each painting. It's a CBC site.

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