Chris Uphues

Chris Uphues was born in 1971, and was raised in Berwyn IL. He graduated from The School of the Art Institute of Chicago with a major in Painting and a minor in Art history. Uphues's artwork is concerned with an idiosyncratic visual vocabulary embracing: toys, robots, popular and anonymous objects, graffiti, video games, animation, comics, fireworks, and all things Japanese. By 1994, Uphues was a struggling janitor/artist. It was at this time that he began making street art. He understands the fantastic energy, force and formal variety present everywhere in the material products of everyday popular culture. Soon his work began to be recognized and his art began to appear in galleries, museums, and in print. His work is included in major art collections, most recently, the Museum of Modern Art in New York City. Uphues lives on the south-side of Chicago with his monkey Del.