/OVERSPRAY OF THE HEART

In Christian Bachez’s home of Manhattan’s Alphabet City neighborhood, the greatest way to honor a community member’s life was always a small portrait mural on a local bodega’s metal roll-down gate. These murals offered both symbolic and physical space for mourning and remembrance, as neighbors adorned the sidewalk with prayers and flowers. Even as the bouquets wilted, and the cheap Rustoleum spray paint faded, the impact of the mural’s subject lived on. As a child, witnessing and reflecting on this communal tradition, Bachez always wondered why these murals were reserved for after a community member’s death.

Bachez moved to Worcester in 2019 to attend the College of the Holy Cross, and quickly fell in love with the city, its people, and its quirks. He collected a new community in Central Massachusetts, full of artists, politicians, muralists, academics, skateboarders, shop owners, and more, listening to their stories along the way.

The portraits completed with the Material Needs Grant merge Bachez’s childhood experience of the tribute murals with his new community of Worcester. Bachez chooses to honor these people and their contributions to the city’s culture in the present, and through a combination of fine art and street art techniques and materials. In using both spray paint and oil paint on traditional stretched linen, and by placing these portraits in a contemporary gallery space, Bachez opens a conversation about what we appreciate as art, and the spaces in which we do so.

Christian Bachez

Christian Bachez is a painter, muralist, digital artist, and photographer born, raised, and currently living in Alphabet City, New York. He graduated from the College of the Holy Cross with a B.A. in Psychology and Visual Arts.

Bachez’s introspective work teeters between celebratory exuberance and political commentary. Themes of addiction, preservation versus destruction, empathy, and social inequities emerge from his own experience or conversations with others, and are delicately woven into each work.

Bachez draws inspiration from both the vibrant culture and complex social dynamics of his current and childhood surroundings. His educational background in fine arts and psychology, coupled with his keen interest in social justice, informs his distinct artistic voice. Through his work, he encourages viewers to engage in meaningful conversations and to contemplate their own contributions to the world.

@bachezdoesart // www.christianbachez.com