Chris Stain and Billy Mode Invent the Future Show at Galerie F

Chris Stain and Billy Mode have collaborated to create a body of work transporting their public art to a private space. Their styles are starkly different aesthetically, but collide conceptually through their interpretation of urban lifestyle. Stain implements the boldness of imagery through simplified stencils, Mode abstracts text into an intensely detailed declaration.

All works will be available to view for the duration of the exhibition during open hours and on the Galerie F website on Monday June 1st.

CHRIS STAIN was raised in the working class neighborhood of Highlandtown in Baltimore, MD. His interest in art began with NYC subway graffiti in the mid 1980s. Having learned printmaking methods in high school, he eventually shifted my technique toward stenciling. In 2000 he began exhibiting his work. Adapting images from photographs and working with spray paint, stencils, and paper to create interior/exterior works, Stain seeks to convey an authentic contemporary document that illustrates the triumph of the human spirit as experienced by those in underrepresented urban and rural environments. Stain works and lives in Queens, New York with his wife and two children.

BILLY MODE is a Baltimore artist who credits his formal training to the graffiti movement of the 1980′s. His current work deals with mathematical structures that are modular in design. Currently he focuses on words, which are composed into themes such as “Invent the Future”. Keeping in the graffiti tradition of stylized lettering, Bill places these thought provoking and meaningful words into repeated patterns. From there the images can be taken on as a mantra or as an invitation to consider other ideas outside of the painting. The designs are made into stencils, which allow him to experiment with different techniques and arrive at new visual perspectives. Bill uses these stencil concepts to create large-scale murals as well as experimental paintings in the studio. Sacred geometry, mathematics, micro/macrocosm parallels, and designs that exist in nature inspire Bill. He fuses these concepts with words and phrases from songs, lectures, conversations, etc. and incorporates them into his work.