Chris Bingham learned about and became involved with Art Conspiracy the old-fashioned way… through social media. “And I’ve tried to be a part of the event every year since I learned about it,” he says. “The organization accomplishes so much awareness of the arts in Dallas and the surrounding community.”

Chris has been drawn to and creating art since he was a child and is now an artist both professionally—as a high school art teacher in Mesquite—and extracurricularly in his personal studio. “I grew up as an only child, so drawing, painting, anything artistic, really, was something I did to pass the time,” he says. “Then, when I entered college, there were two things I was good at—baseball and art. When baseball didn’t pan out past my freshman year, I turned my focus to art.” Despite saying he didn’t take art all that seriously till high school, Chris does claim he was significantly influenced by Carolyn Reed, his middle school art teacher at W.E. Greiner Middle School, and after that, “it was my first drawing professor at Cedar Valley College, Linda Ridgway,” he says. “Both had pretty heavy influences on my future, whether they knew it or not.” As far as inspiration, Chris draws most heavily from his family and local community. “I was born and raised in the heart of the city… Oak Cliff. I still live in Oak Cliff and hopefully always will. I feel there is so much beauty in my social and cultural surroundings,” he says. “And, of course, my family serves as a constant pool of free models.” He has also been impacted by the emotional connections in contemporary artist Chuck Close’s work and Houston painter Kevin Peterson’s “mix of urban landscapes with the vulnerability of the wild.” Chris’s “fluid and experimental” approach to his own art aims to touch his viewers by stirring something in them emotionally, through memory and familiarity. “The images portrayed may not always be the most pleasant, but the lasting memory they will leave will surely burn a pattern on your heart,” his online site explains. With that in mind, this year’s SKEWED theme “fits with [his] artistic style and vision perfectly,” he says. And his selected word, vision, “was such a broad category that it kind of panicked [him] at first, but it definitely lends itself to be very open and provocative.”

Find out a little more about Chris’s work at www.chrisbinghamart.com, and come check out him and other wonderful artists at this year’s Art Conspiracy SKEWED.

Written By: Martha Belden

BUY TICKETS: bit.ly/acskewed

Art Conspiracy presents SKEWED will be held at Life in Deep Ellum, 2803 Taylor St. Dallas, TX 75226, on Saturday, June 6. Doors open at 7 pm. Show from 7:30-11:00 pm. Tickets on sale for $10 per ticket.

Art Conspiracy organizers and musicians are available for interviews. Additional press imagery and graphics are available upon request. For more information, please contact Erica Felicella at erica@cellaarts.com or call (214) 563-8095.

About Art Conspiracy

Art Conspiracy is a nonprofit community that conspires to bring artists and musicians together, raise funds, and activate awareness for regional creative programs and causes.