CREATIVE DISCIPLINE-
Scultpure and craft

PRIMARY MEDIUM(S)-
metal, wood, string and recycled electrical parts

ARTIST STATEMENT-

Art is immense and my imagination has no limits. I've been a tinkerer and a creator since I was a little kid growing up in the slums of Lima. My mother brought home broken toys from her wealthy employer and I would take them apart and piece them together to create new toys, creatures that I imagined, and gadgets that I invented. As a teenager, selling incense on the street, I met street vendors and artisans who introduced me to macrame and wire wrapping. I learned jewelry making techniques in the school of the streets and spent the next 10 years traveling around South America, selling my wares and apprenticing with some of the greatest artisans in the world. Today, I'm still tinkering and creating, constantly learning new methods and experimenting with new materials. I enjoy blending ancestral Peruvian culture with science fiction, creating futuristic sculptures of ancient beings, inventing bio-mechanical creatures that incorporate the flora and fauna of the Amazon, weaving dream catchers using colors from Shipiba textiles, and wire wrapping jewelry carved with Incan iconography. My work is also inspired by current events and social/environmental justice issues that are happening around the globe such as the war in Ukraine, water pollution, the pandemic and the refugee crisis. Immigrating to the United States has been a very impactful experience for me and I process my observations as an immigrant in New York City through my art.

ARTIST BIOGRAPHY-
Cristopher Reyna Choque is a master craftsman, sculptor, and jewelry designer from Lima, Peru currently based in East Harlem. He has been a practicing artist and artisan for over 13 years, with his current emphasis on working with fibers, metals, semi-precious stones, wood and other recycled and organic materials. As a jewelry maker, Cris utilizes a mixed media technique of wire wrapping, carving, and weaving to create intricate wearable art that fuses ancestral Peruvian culture with a contemporary artisanal aesthetic. Christopher is also a skilled metal worker and sculptor, applying jewelry making techniques to up-cycle discarded toys, electronics, and artesanía into sculptures of biomechanical creatures. Combining afro-Peruvian folklore with science fiction, he gives life and personality to animals and invented beings. Aside from working with metals, Cris is an accomplished fiber artist with an extensive line of macrame jewelry, wall hangings, and weavings. Inspired by Native American and pre-hispanic traditions, Cristopher is currently working on a series of mobiles and multi-layered dream catchers. Working with yarn, string, found wood, feathers and glass beads, Cristopher's works interact with sunlight, air and color to create movement and grace. Christopher has been heavily involved in teaching others how to create as part of his mission to empower youth through craft. He has dedicated the past 6 years of his practice to offering free workshops in wire wrapping and sculpting with metal to young people as an alternative to drug use and delinquency. He has participated in international art festivals such as Akumal Art Festival in Mexico and Amazonarte in Pucallpa, Peru. Cristopher's work has been exhibited in galleries and art fairs in Peru, Bolivia, Brazil, and Cuba. He is currently based in New York City where he is studying English at Columbia University and attending classes at Bushwick Jewelry Casting. He has participated in local art and craft festivals including Craft New York at Lincoln Center and the Hester Street Art Fair at South Street Seaport.

Cristopher Reyna Choque

          New York, NY, United States