Chase Langford

Chase Langford has created a distinctive visual language that is grounded in the natural and built environment while embarking into uncharted territory. His impactful depictions recall maps and aerial photography of seacoasts, mountains, farmland and cities through a calculated execution and highly refined draftsmanship. Just as the West Coast Abstract Expressionists (1940 to 1970) found California’s striking landscape fertile ground, so does Langford as he draws upon his geographic environs both near and far. Through his cartographic mastery, Langford contorts and synthesizes geographic elements, bringing forth paintings that are mysteriously familiar yet surprisingly unconventional. They challenge conventions of geography and landscapes, offering invigorating visions of space and place that transcend any specific locale, leading us to an exhilarating emotional experience.

Born in Pontiac, Michigan, Chase is a California-based artist well known for his geographically inspired paintings. He studied cartography at UC Santa Barbara in Geography. While working as a cartographer at UCLA, he started his Map Paintings series he literally reinterpreted geography by taking selected features from maps and filled in the reconfigured shapes in a flurry of color and movement creating a fresh take on familiar geographic forms. This followed with series that moved even deeper into pure abstraction with his Coldwater, Mulholland, and Scrape series which all lead to his Morphic series, now the core focus of his painting today.

His paintings have been widely shown at one-person and group exhibitions in Los Angeles, New York City, Toronto, Dallas, Palm Beach, Washington DC, Montreal, Palo Alto, Las Vegas, Long Beach, Napa Valley, Seattle, and Palm Springs and is included in many corporate/public collections such as Long Beach Museum of Art, Keck School of Medicine at USC, Michael & Susan Dell Foundation, Star City in Sydney, Australia, Royal Caribbean Cruises, Monique Lhuillier, Inc., Caesar’s Palace, UBS, Nordstrom and The Art Bank, U.S. Dept of State. He is in private collections in North America, Europe, Japan, Hong Kong, Middle East, Singapore and Australia. He is also in the private collections of Magic Johnson, Pete Sampras, and the Saudi Royal Family.