Casey Criddle is a painter and business owner living in Richmond, Virginia. Casey paints predominately in acrylic but will also incorporate automotive paint, metal foils and textured techniques on panel. She owns Craft Studio Services and operates out of her home studio. Contact Casey for any inquiries;
caseycriddle@gmail.com
Casey Criddle
b. 1991 Portsmouth, Virginia
Education
Virginia Commonwealth University
Bachelors of Fine Arts in Painting and Printmaking
Internships/Residencies
Studio 23, Screen-print Resident 2014-2018
Reynolds Gallery, Gallery Assistant 2013
Carter and Co. Historic Wallpapers, Printer 2012
Honors/Awards
Honorable Mention New Waves 2016, MOCA Virginia Beach
Cum Laude 2013, Painting and Printmaking
Merit Studio Student Spring 2013, Painting
3rd Place All Media Juried Show 2013, Petersburg Regional Art Center
Publications/Video
New American Paintings southern issue #130
The Builder Produced by: Shockoe Artspace.
Selected Exhibitions
2023
Sotheby’s International Realty, Steele Group, Richmond, VA “Who IS The Man?” Mickael Solomon Rosedale
Pairos Gallery, Richmond, VA “Others That Dream With You” Bret Payne
2022
Sotheby’s International Realty, Steele Group, Richmond, VA “The Walls; Casey Criddle” Mickael Solomon Rosedale
O’Flaherty’s, New York, NY, “The Patriot” Jamian Juliano Villani, Ruby Zarsky, Billy Grant.
2021
Untitled Art Fair, Eden Airlines, Miami, FL “Casey Criddle” Ariel and Sam
Eden Airlines, Richmond, VA “Lifestyle Pursuits” Ariel & Sam
2020
Capital One hosts Iridian Gallery, a virtual show, Richmond, VA “CAMP/OUT” Michael Birch-Pierce
2019
CURRENT Art Fair, Richmond, VA “ada gallery” John Pollard
Central Park Gallery, Los Angeles, CA “Chains” artist run
Martha’s Contemporary, Austin, TX “Different Flowers” Ricky Morales
2018
Endeavor, Richmond, VA “Ltd.” Endeavor collective
Endeavor, Richmond, VA “3 Year Anniversary” Endeavor collective
Pop-up space, Richmond, VA “All In” Ian Mondragon and Jered Fykes
Shockoe Artspace, Richmond, VA “Absurd Survival” solo show, Ryan Lauterio
2017
Myers Street Gallery, Richmond, VA “EndoInspo” solo show.
Virginia Museum of Contemporary Art, Virginia Beach, VA “New Waves” Juror: Ken Harman
Slayer Gallery, online art space "No History" Juror: Lindsay Coffman and Maria Joranko
2016
Studio 23, Richmond, VA "Current Art Fair-after party" studio 23
Virginia Museum of Contemporary Art, Virginia Beach, VA “New Waves” Juror: Jan Tumlir
2013
Isley Brewing, Richmond, VA. “Colors by Three” Casey Criddle, Lucy Aiken, Liz Guzman
Pop-up Space, Richmond, VA. “All That, And Rye Bread Too” Merit Painting Class
Crenshaw House, Richmond, VA. “Placing the Placeless” Juror: G-SEX
Fine Arts Building, Richmond, VA. “Painting and Printmaking Department Senior Show”
Fishbowl, Richmond, VA. “Interaction 42” Juror: Reni Gower and Barbara Tisserat, VCU Faculty
Anderson Gallery, Richmond, VA. “Annual Final Art Exhibit” Juror: Lisa Freiman
Petersburg Regional Art Center, Petersburg, VA. “January All Media Show”Juror: Thomas Condon
Who IS The Man?: Casey Criddle 2023
LIFESTYLE PURSUITS: Ariel and Casey Criddle 2021
ABSURD SURVIVAL PRESS RELEASE:
ABSURD SURVIVAL essay by Mike Dulin.
“I had been on a hike and I was thinking about absurdity and why do I make things so hard in life, why is it always two steps forward one step back,” says conceptual artist Casey Criddle about her show “Absurd Survival”, “and so I began thinking about tying rocks to my shoes.”
This epiphany came at the end of a long journey of thought and production. The young artist’s solo show, consisting of 32 works on view at Shockoe Art Space, spans out like a diary of a 2 ½ year philosophical path. In her paintings, Criddle offers thoughtful references to consider regarding the aftermaths of an apocalyptic world and what survival could mean for the human spirit. Such is her absurd metaphor painting, "BRB”, one of the larger panels of acrylic a top a base of automotive paint. The painted image is of a hiking boot with two rocks bound to it with line. The vision realized during her own struggle had become its own glaring example of what she had been working toward after all this time. Criddle does not dwell in tragedy but in the struggle and the absurdity found throughout life.
“The modern world is so intense to me; there is a lot of stimulation. Survival has been on my mind every day, I think about mental health a lot. Sometimes it’s not muscle hard its brain hard. Survival has so much to do on this next level”.
Her body of work, consisting of various sized acrylics on panel, as well as a collection of screen prints and drawings all to guide the viewer through a sort of surreal J. Peterman Catalogue. She shows what a life of survival could look like for unidentified survivors found in the items they have gathered, the shelters they build, and the tools they need. Like a waste land scavenger, her images used for reference are found not in rubble heaps but scoured from the internet complete with painted watermarks, from cult movies, and camping catalogues. She magnifies the solutions of meaning a person might gather for there own desired needs.
In a series of paintings entitled, “Shelter site”, encampments are staged as still life portraits. The found objects in the scenes are collaged together to mirror the struggles of the survivor and the stress they endure. As well as in her monolithic, 2 panel piece, “Nest”, Criddle saturates the scene of a stone encampment, a distorted overhead view, with these found references. The viewer works to understand the value of items included and what life they would afford.
“Because I have this influence of camping and nature, it is often very apparent in those situations this constant challenge. So I think I used it, nature, as this metaphor for absurdity because it is very visually obvious and always happening, it is easy for nature to trip you up all the time. The post apocalypse storyline is just in regard to our world situation in general. There is a trope of that kind of philosophy to talk about the end of the world or ending your life and how the world makes no sense.”
In the end her playful regard to the question of, “What is the purpose of life” allows the viewer to recognize nature’s ambivalence to the human ordeal. Of how humans can often commit secular suicide, halting the process of questioning life, and instead lose them in a commodity culture or entertainment fog to put the question to rest.
“In real life it is usually nature hitting you with the challenges but in my images it is a man made absurdity. Who tied the rock to the shoe after all? “
New American Painters: Southern Issue #130 pages 38-41 2017
