One could describe the work of Peruvian-born Chris Dyer as psychedelic street art – for he does not see the gallery, but the street as the place where his art can best unfold its effect. And so one finds his colorful, highly psychedelic and yet remarkably clear paintings on shoes, skates, surf and snowboards, on hats, cars and of course the walls of the urban concrete jungle. Next year there will be a documentary about his work and his numerous travels on DVD, as well as an art book with “260 pages of various visual explosions of the soul”…
Soccer was the rule, back then in the boys-only elementary school in Lima. Thus Chris, a highly imaginative boy who was barely ever seen not doodling something, was regarded to be quite a nerd.
But the young Peruvian kept on scribbling, always feeling the urge to create something new, to check out unknown techniques and to switch up mediums and styles.
In this way he developed step by step a very independent and truly unique style. His paintings are bursting with colours and combine profound psychedelic ideas with a highly energetic clarity. But there is even more: He pursues an approach that could be described as psychedelic Street Art.
“I think canvas painting allows a nice surface to express something really powerful, but it can also be boring to always just do squares n rectangles, stuff with corners. Visionary art has to escape the galleries and hit the streets to reach the real masses who need it”, the nowadays Canada based artist explains. Which is why his work can be found on shoes, skate-, snow-, and surfboards, on hats, vehicles, vinyl toys, records and of course also on the walls of the urban concrete jungles. It is really just like Chris, that he can’t restrict himself to one medium to paint on, he can’t decide for a favourite technique: ‘I think I can do my sickest stuff with acrylic paints, but then I also like to just jam out some quick spray paint murals on a hot sunny day. Drawing is fun, video is fun, sculpture is fun’ Chris does not regard himself to be part of a particular scene. Nevertheless he has a very clear idea of psychedelic art: ‘It comes from parallel dimensions, vibrating at a higher frequency; Visions from beyond our physical reality. This is not necessarily tied into drugs as all realities already exist inside us. Not necessarily positive, but hopefully.’ During the past 3 years he has been collaborating on a documentary movie about his art and his numerous journeys, that will be published on DVD in spring. He has just finished ‘260 big glossy color pages of visual soul explosions of different kinds’ – quite a promising thing to watch out for in 2011!
Roberdo Raval