USA Projects

Christopher Chinn's artwork is inspired by the artist's encounters with the homeless population of downtown Los Angeles, where Chinn lived after completing his MFA at the USC Roski School of Fine Arts ('01).  Chinn's artwork brings to attention a social issue that is to this day far from resolved.  Surprised by the difficulty he experienced with simply being able to look at the conditions of the homeless every day, Chinn began to work through these experiences in his paintings.  He abandoned his beautifully painted portraits of family and friends and focused his attention on the men and women who lived on the streets around his studio.  Trying to understand homelessness and its many causes and faces, Chinn's creative process unexpectedly involved sitting on the sidewalks of skid row with his new neighbors.  The resulting artworks are a powerful testament to the human connections made and stories told.  Chinn's compelling portraits further the connections between us all, depicting with palpable dignity, the real faces of homelessness, and bringing to our attention that it is not just an issue of the streets and urban dwellings, but one that we must all pay attention to and work together to solve.