Portland People: The Edgy and Original Chris Haberman | Artist, Gallery Curator
April 6, 2011 — pdxpipelineThis is the first in a series of profiles/portraits of dynamic or influential Portlanders that are slated to appear occasionally on PDX Pipeline. This week, photog Natalie St. John interviews prolific and dynamic Portland artist and gallery curator Chris Haberman.
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By Natalie St. John
Painter Chris Haberman doesn’t gather much dust.
A self-described “professional writer, artist, curator, and advocate for Portland culture,” Haberman was once characterized by Mayor Sam Adams as “The hardest-working artist in Portland.”
Ever since he left the corporate world and began painting professionally in 2002, he has been turning out his “uniquely clichéd” pieces of celebratory, spontaneous, pop-art with an almost alarming proficiency.
In fact, Haberman, who was formerly a paralegal, “with a suit and everything”, estimates that he has sold over 7,000 paintings in the last nine years, which, if you were wondering, works out to an average 777 paintings a year.
Haberman takes an unusually democratic approach to his work as both painter and a curator. By creating a high volume of pieces that are both aesthetically and financially accessible to larger audiences, he seeks to expand the sometimes-rigid values and practices of the traditional art world.
“Doing this is about community for me,” says the artist, who takes a similarly collaborative approach to the more than 200 shows he has curated since 2006.
More On Haberman, plus photos, after the jump… Read the rest of this entry »
