I got a sad note from gallerist Bridgette Mayer today announcing the death in a motorcycle accident of a young artist, Chris Lyon, 33, whose solo show was scheduled to open at the gallery in March. We are saddened by the news about this young artist and his tragic accident. And we wish his family love in this time of sadness. Mayer, who is working with the family, says the artist’s exhibition will take place in March as planned. This is his third solo exhibit with the gallery.

The artist died January 9, 2007, when his motorcycle was hit head on by a truck. He passed away instantly, Mayer said.

Lyon was a University of Pennsylvania alumnus (MFA 1999) who also had a Certificate from the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts (1996). In addition, he was a graduate of the American Motorcycle Institute in Daytona Beach, Florida, and a factory certified mechanic for Ducati and BMW motorcycles.

Critic Lily Wei, who wrote the catalog essay for the March exhibit said of the artist’s work:

In his ambitiously scaled, deceptively blissful, blissed-out, dirty pink and heavenly blue paintings, chaos is the norm—although it is an ordered mayhem. Lyon seeks the high point, the soundless Munch scream as he obsessively, meticulously adjusts his visionary haul—with echoes of Matthew Ritchie’s cosmological epics—spinning it into a painting.

Lyon, who lived in Tyler, Texas, was a South Carolina native. In addition to his parents, he is survived by his wife, Alexis W. Serio, and a brother, Jon Lyon of Dallas, Texas. Memorial donations may be made to the Chris Lyon Memorial Scholarship Fund, care of the East Texas Community Foundation, 315 N. Broadway, Suite 210, Tyler, Texas 75702.

Chris Lyon: Two Hundred Seventy Degrees
February 28 – March 24, 2007
Reception: Friday, March 2nd 6:00-8:30 p.m.
Bridgette Mayer Gallery
709 Walnut Street Philadelphia
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**Chris Lyon’s Statement for BULDUCKO
Edited by Alexis Serio

“Bull, Taco and the Duck” (Bulducko) has begun as a deep passion towards the ideals and personification given to machines. There is an animal relationship or instinct involved with thinking about the visual experience of a motorcycle. It is a unique visual experience that seems to have a connection to Plato’s idea of beauty. The feeling is overhead, under, all around, gripping, calculated danger and simmering excitement. It can be exhilarating standing still or zooming by at 208 miles per hour. Paint that. The idea is specific and a little bit off track with the other paintings, but should reveal a continuity at some point.