Christopher Knowles
Born in 1959, Christopher lives in Brooklyn, New York. in 1973 at the age of fourteen, he met Robert Wilson. Wilson heard an audio recording by Knowles, and invited him to collaborate and perform with his company, a partnership that continues today. Knowles first exhibited in 1974, and had solo exhibitions at Holly Solomon Gallery in 1978 and 1979. Knowles is best known for his ‘typings’ of the 1970s and 80s, text-based pieces that were developed as a private pastime. The exceptional ability in mathematical organization revealed in these works is a characteristic by-product of autism, with which Knowles was diagnosed as a child. His work also reveals affinities with the structure of serial art and music, and has a strong relationship to performance (the artist has also made live and recorded performances of his texts). Knowles’ typings, created on an electric typewriter, using red, black and green inks, employ lists of words and phrases, including those derived from pop charts. Additional features include geometrical patterns, carefully built up using the artist's initial, ‘C’. Knowles is represented by Gavin Brown's enterprise in New York.
As of January 2014