Were there ever any good old days? Beyond this cliché, looking back on history reveals that in our past, times were troubled and full of problems. Crime, poverty and war were prevalent, much like today. People often romanticize about the early and mid - 20th century as being better, when in fact, it was just different. This show is a continuation of my paintings of people who had just been caught. Mug shots, arrest cards and evidence, recreated in acrylic on paper bags in my ongoing attempt to get people thinking about the past, their present, and how we all affect both.

Hey, you old bag, Chris Crites has your number. For several years, Crites has been painting stick-up artists and their victims. Instead of missing children on milk cartons, he offers dubious portraits on brown paper, rendered in precise yet gory detail. -Regina Hackett, In the Galleries: March, Seattle PI

Chris Crites is working through a book of pre-1960 mug shots, making portraits of every thief, grifter, and murderer in it, like both a reanimator and a categorical scientist. Working with a vivid and artificial palette, his colors pool into the spilled-mercury-like globules of a paint-by-number composition. ... Unlike the light-hogging surface of a white paper or canvas, the bags make his paint shine, like neon in the night. -Abigail Guay, Blart, the Stranger

Showing Feb 26th - Mar 30th, 2007 // Reception - Thursday, March 1st from 6-9 PM

To view more of Chris's work, please visit his website.