Chris ‘Spin’ Spinney — April 2025 Gallery Show at LUX FORGE
SPIN’s ARTIST STATEMENT
Both serious and playful, Spin's artwork is informed by his belief that an experience of deeper awareness is unconditionally beneficial to all. Understanding that a lotus blooms from the mud, his work seeks to transform the mundane into magic and the everyday into the sublime.
A single encounter with one of Spin's work will embed deeply within one's consciousness and begin to do its work there. Whatever the medium or setting, his work may simultaneously soothe and unsettle. You may find yourself visiting that feeling over and over, or it may lie dormant for several years before coming to the surface again, but a seed has been planted. Each work is intended to serve similarly to a Bodhisattva in Mahayana Buddhism: standing next to complete enlightenment as it continues to liberate all other sentient beings from suffering.
SPIN’s BIO:
Spin grew up near Denver, Colorado and studied Asian and Religion Studies at Lehigh University in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania. Since then, he
has lived and practiced at a Japanese Zen monastery, worked on Wall Street, scuba dove in the Marianas Trench, drank plenty of wine in Europe, and studied various arts and crafts under some deeply committed and talented teachers. He has participated in numerous group and solo shows in New York, Colorado, and Japan. He currently lives and works in Denver, or wherever he happens to find himself.
WHO IS DARUMA-SAN?
“A few years ago I started painting Daruma-sans, both on canvases and panels as well as on paper that I then pasted up outside in the public realm. In Japan, people give little paper-mache Daruma-sans as gifts to family and friends around the new year, and the way it works is that you draw in an eye while you envision a goal or dream. Then Daruma-san, with his one eye, stares at you until you accomplish it or it comes to be true, at which point you fill in the other eye. He is supposed to be a strong symbol of perseverance and dedication, and the character originally comes from the story of Bodhidharma, who is the Zen patriarch of Japan. Bodhidharma (Daruma-san) was so intent on realizing his True Nature and experiencing a deep enlightenment that he sat intently meditating, staring at a wall for 9 years. As the story goes, he was so determined to do this that he did not get up at all (for anything!), so eventually his arms and legs rotted off, which is why the little Daruma-san dolls are essentially a torsoless head. Eventually Bodhidharma did apparently have some sort of deep experience. So when you see one of my Daruma-sans, you may feel a degree of the intensity of this state of mind, years deep in meditation, staring at a wall and ultra-determined to become what you were born to be. I like the idea of suspending the Daruma-sans in an activated state, where one eye is intently staring. There is something unsettling and incomplete about them, with only the one eye filled in. I want to inspire you to push a little harder to become a better, fuller version of your own deep, true self.” —SPIN
IN ADDITION TO ORIGINAL PAINTINGS:
We have a fun variety of things, all with original SPIN brushstrokes, Daruma -San and more. We’ve added a bunch of new things to our SOUVENIR section, including Tote Bags, customizable Hand Painted sneakers, cards & more. Spin’s paintings of also range in size starting at 6” x 8” and going up to 30” x 40”, see the full show in our FINE ART section.
Learn more about Spin at his website here: gggonggg.com
And on his instagram @theresnoplacelikespin