Visitors will have a chance to step into the art of Chris Rackley at the Kolman & Reeb Gallery during the Chris’ Project Space grant exhibition, Life As A Mall Brat.

Chris uses drawings, sculptures, and an interactive video to explore his memories of the shopping mall in Duluth, Georgia where his father managed a shoe store in the 1980s. Chris recreates miniature versions of architectural elements of the mall—a place he wandered every day for ten years, sometimes on a tricycle, as though it were a neighborhood. These recognizable facades and embellishments are presented at different scales relative to one another, emulating the way memory can be fragmented and accompanied by a longing to reconstruct significant moments from the past.

Chris earned a Bachelor of Arts from Davidson College and a Master of Fine Art from George Mason University. He was an adjunct professor at Winona State University before earning an Artist Initiative grant from the Minnesota State Arts Board and an Art(ists) On the Verge Fellowship in the same year, allowing him to begin working full-time in his studio. Chris served on the Board of Directors for the Rochester Art Center in Minnesota and currently serves on the Davidson Arts and Creative Engagement Advisory Board for Davidson College in North Carolina. Chris’ work has been featured in solo and group exhibitions nationally and internationally. He currently lives and works in Rochester, Minnesota.