Christopher Mangum

Christopher Mangum was born in Oakland, California in 1975, to a father who drove a taxi-cab in San Francisco and a very literary mother. He grew up in a home visited regularly by Hell’s Angels and Hippies along with wandering souls of all types. He studied Illustration at the Academy of Art College, receiving his BFA in 2000. There he took classes in drawing from life and studied figure and landscape painting in the tradition of California Impressionism. Since then he has received several awards for painting and drawing, and commissions by private collectors. He lives in Concord, California with a cat and a very stubborn chihuahua, and a guitar that he will perhaps someday take the time to learn to play.

The work of christopher mangum explores a variety of different ideas, but many of those ideas share common threads. There is an ever-present quest for an objective Truth. Not mere facts, but the underlying Truths that bind our thoughts and culture together, which most of the time we try to avoid thinking about. Also, he explores his fascination with the Insider and the Outsider. To some extent, all of us are Insiders—inside of our various clubs and cliques, inside of our families and businesses, inside of our nationality and other markers of collective identity. And yet we are also all marked as Outsiders. Everything that makes us unique and individual separates us from one group or another. Our separation from political power or macro-economic decisions can make us Outsiders. At times we can even feel like Outsiders within our own groups and colleagues, when we explore personal questions that are separate from theirs. Nearly everything can be expressed as some type of Inside vs. Outside duality. Where this thread of investigations will ultimately lead is unknown at this time, however there is some small hope that it may lead a step or two closer to that ultimate Truth that is so difficult to define.

EXHIBITIONS

2017 April: Group Show, Warehouse 416 Gallery, Oakland, “WEPower MePower Empower” March: Group Show, Bluxome Street Gallery, San Francisco; “Resist”

2016 October: Group Show, Bluxome Street Gallery, San Francisco; “Punk’s Not Dead” July: Group Show, Bluxome Street Gallery, San Francisco; “Lead Poisoning”

2015 September: Group Show, “Pancakes and Booze”. Minna Street Gallery, San Francisco. April: Group Show, “Down the Rabbit-hole”, 150th anniversary of Alice in Wonderland (Oakland, CA)

2005-Present: exhibiting the Culinary Collection in the following galleries– Exclusive Collections Galleries (San Diego, Los Angeles, Las Vegas and Breckenridge, Colorado.) Vinings Gallery (Atlanta, GA), Shafer Gallery (Portland, OR) Eclectic Images Gallery (Maui, HI), Picadilly’s Gallery (Cleveland, OH) Peabody Gallery (Menlo Park, CA)

2005-2014: represented by Crown Thorn Publishing

2004-2005 Christopher Hill Gallery (St. Helena, CA) 2003 Golden Oak Gallery (Berkeley, CA)

2002 Christensen Heller Gallery (Oakland, CA) March, Group show at 610 Bush St. Gallery (San Francisco, CA)

2001 September, AS gallery (Petaluma, CA) March, Christensen Heller Gallery (Oakland, CA)

ART FESTIVALS AND EVENTS

2016 August: Oakland Art and Soul Festival, June: Walnut Creek Art and Wine Festival, April: Clayton Art and Wine Festival

2015 September: Lafayette Art and Wine Festival, June: Walnut Creek Art and Wine Festival

2006-2013: Little Italy Artwalk Annual Exhibition

2008-2014: San Diego Bay Wine and Food Festival (featured artist 2008 and celebrity artist 2009)

2011 to 2014: Taste of Gaslamp, featured artist 2012: Las Vegas Food and Wine Festival 2010: ArtExpo New York

2007 to 2010: ArtExpo Las Vegas annual exhibits (featured artist 2008)

PROMINENT COLLECTORS

Thomas Keller, Charlie Trotter, Gavin Kyssen, Kevin Rathbun, Francois Payard (notableAmerican Chefs); Heidi Barret, Pam Starr (notable American Winemakers)

AWARDS AND PUBLICATIONS

“25 Artists to Watch” Art World News

Also Featured in Published Articles: Art Business, News Fine Art Collector, SkyWest Magazine, San Diego Home and Garden Magazine ,SF Society of Illustrators (Bronze Award)