Lives and works in the Bronx, New York
Education
1999 M.F.A., Pratt Institute, Brooklyn, NY
1995 B.F.A., Pacific Northwest College of Art, Portland, OR
Fellowships, Grants and Residencies
2020 Pollock-Krasner Foundation Grant
2019 MacDowell Fellowship
2019 Brush Creek Foundation for the Arts Residency, Saratoga, WY
2019 Pratt Institute Faculty Development Grant (also 2009)
2015 New York Foundation for the Arts Fellowship in Painting
1999 Certificate of Excellence Award for Outstanding Merit in Graduate Fine Arts, Pratt Institute, Brooklyn, NY
Solo Exhibitions
2021 Eastern Sierra from Hwy 395, Lake Room Gallery, Mono Inn, Lee Vining, CA
2018 Fort Tilden, Jamaica Bay Wildlife Refuge, Queens, NY
2010 George Billis Gallery, Los Angeles, CA
2009 George Billis Gallery, New York, NY
2008 George Billis Gallery, New York, NY
2006 President’s Office Gallery, Pratt Institute, Brooklyn, NY
2005 Martin Art Gallery, Muhlenberg College, Allentown, PA
Selected Group Exhibitions
2026 Far & Wide: Cityscapes Unseen, Woodstock Artists Association & Museum, Woodstock, NY
2024 Connections VIII, Artists Selecting Artists, Atlantic Gallery, New York, NY
2022 New York Foundation for the Arts, Hall of Fame Benefit Auction, Capitale, New York, NY
2019 Uplift: Celebrating the Sierra Nevada, Arts Benicia Gallery, Benicia, CA
2019 Pratt in Venice 35th Anniversary Exhibition, Steuben Gallery, Pratt Institute, Brooklyn, NY
2019 Voracious Eye, Abrazo Interno Gallery, The Clemente, New York, NY
2016 What’s in a Landscape, The Fine Arts Office Gallery, Pratt Institute, Brooklyn, NY
2015 Sequential Convergence, An Exhibition by Pratt Faculty, Hot Wood Arts, Brooklyn, NY
2014 Showtime, Armature Art Space Inc., Brooklyn, NY
2014 Something Blue, Artspace, New Haven, CT
2013 Single Fare 3, R H Gallery, New York, NY
2011 Urban Suburban, The Eptsen Gallery, Overland Park, KS
2011 The Dining Room Project: Food, Art & The Ritual of Eating, The Eptsen Gallery, Overland Park, KS
2010 Sweetness and Light, Hampden Gallery, University of Massachusetts Amherst, MA
2010 Gallery Artists: Selected Works, George Billis Gallery, Los Angeles, CA
2009 What’s the Rush? Topics on Convenience, Main Art Gallery, California State University, Fullerton, CA
2009 Take Home A Nude: New York Academy of Art, Sotheby’s, New York, NY
2008 Neo-Realism, George Billis Gallery, Los Angeles, CA
2008 The 23rd Annual Gala & Auction Benefit, Nicolaysen Art Museum, Casper, WY
2007 Affordable Art Fair, George Billis Gallery, Metropolitan Pavilion & Altman Building, New
York, NY
2007 Baroque Revival, The Gallery at Tacoma Community College, Tacoma, WA
2005 28th Small Works, 80 Washington Square East Galleries, New York University, New York, NY
2003 Art History’s Heroes: The Masters of Contemporary Realism, Martin Art Gallery, Baker Center for the Arts, Muhlenberg College, Allentown, PA
1999 Miniatures for the Millennium, White Bird Gallery, Cannon Beach, OR
1998 Panopticon, Swiss Institute-Contemporary Art, New York, NY
1997 New York Area M.F.A. Exhibition, Co-Sponsored by the College Art Association, Hunter
College/Times Square Gallery, New York, NY
Selected Bibliography
Joe McCarthy, “Capturing Light in Fort Greene Park,” Pratt News, October 15, 2025.
Allison Meier, “Painting in the Park,” Pratt News, October 12, 2022.
“Seventy-Nine Artists Awarded MacDowell Fellowships,” Artforum, October 8, 2019.
Gateway: Visitor Programs and Events. “Fort Tilden: Paintings by Chris Wright.” National Park Service, U.S. Department of the Interior, Spring 2018.
Foundry Journal, Issue Three. Paintings by Chris Wright published alongside poems by Anne Gorrick (“The Sleep”) and Xandria Phillips (“Bigly”), March 7, 2017.
Studio Visit, Vol. 35. The Open Studios Press, pp. 208–209, 2016.
Roni Jacobson, “An Art Exhibit Pays Tribute to Subway Buskers, B-Boys and Rogue Puppeteers,” Bedford + Bowery (New York Magazine), October 7, 2014.
Annie Correal and Andy Newman, “New York Today: Subway Artists, in a Gallery,” The New York Times, October 3, 2014.
Sarah Judson, “Chris Wright,” Judson’s Plein Air Journal, March 17, 2014.
David Andrew Frey and Tema Stauffer, “New Artist Feature,” Culturehall, Issue 65, March 23, 2011.
American Arts Quarterly, Summer 2010, Vol. 27, No. 3, p. 54.
Linda Griggs and Ben Wesley, Sweetness and Light. Hampden Gallery, University of Massachusetts Amherst, pp. 5, 15, 2010.
Sallie Brady, “Downtown Uptown,” New York Spaces, Vol. 6, No. 8, January/February 2010, pp. 84–85, 116.
Hannah Stephenson, “Fishing,” The Storialist, May 27, 2010.
Krystal Glasman, Matthew Jarvis, and Mike McGee, What’s the Rush? Topics on Convenience. Main Art Gallery, California State University Fullerton, pp. 39, 65, 88–95, 2009.
“Neo-Real,” American Art Collector, Issue 33, July 2008, pp. 195, 197.
New American Paintings, Northeastern Edition, Vol. 68. The Open Studios Press, pp. 166, 169, 2007.
Chris Wright Paintings. Martin Art Gallery, Muhlenberg College, Allentown, PA, 2005.
Lori Verderame, Art History's Heroes: The Masters of Contemporary Realism. Martin Art Gallery, Muhlenberg College, Allentown, PA, 2003.
Jia Difei (essay) and Scott Wampler (ed.), Contemporary American Oil Painting. Jilin Fine Arts Publishing House, Changchun, China, pp. 31–33, 1999.
Panopticon. Swiss Institute–Contemporary Art, New York, NY, 1998.
Collections
Pierogi Flat Files, Brooklyn, NY
Teaching Experience
1999–Present Adjunct Professor, CCE, Pratt Institute, Brooklyn, NY
2017–Present Teaching Artist, 92nd Street Y, New York, NY
2013–2018 Coordinator for Undergraduate Painting, Pratt Institute, Brooklyn, NY
2010–2016 Adjunct Associate Professor, Pratt in Venice Summer Program, Venice, IT
2015 Instructor, Montserrat College of Art, Summer Immersive Program, Beverly, MA
2013 Instructor, New York Academy of Art, Continuing Education Program, New York, NY
2009–2013 Instructor, Educational Alliance, New York, NY
2003–2004 Instructor, Dahesh Museum of Art, New York, NY
2002–2004 Instructor, Parsons The New School for Design, New York, NY