Artist Talk: Chris Combs

Join the Stamp Gallery for an artist talk by Afterhours Exhibiting artist Chris Combs!

Chris Combs is an artist based in Washington, D.C and Mount Rainier, Maryland, whose sculptural artworks both incorporate and question technologies. Chris was the 2025 Artist in Residence at the Sanford Underground Research Facility and is a five-time recipient of the DC CAH Arts and Humanities Fellowship. He is a graduate of the Corcoran College of Art + Design and was a photo editor for National Geographic. He has shown at VisArts, McLean Project for the Arts, IA&A at Hillyer, and other DC-area institutions. His artwork Periscopes is permanently installed in Buzzard Point, D.C., and Madness Method, a collaboration with David Greenfieldboyce, was part of Georgetown GLOW. The Next Big Thing (MoCA Arlington Innovation Studio, 2024) recreated Hokusai’s Great Wave off Kanagawa with E-waste that reacted to visitors’ faces and movements. His show Supercycle (IA&A at Hillyer, 2023) invoked cycles of hype, such as “AI” and cryptocurrencies. Outsized Effects (Gradient Projects, Thomas, WV, 2023–4) included the room-sized Allegheny Data Company, examining data mining through the visual lens of coal mining. Chris is a member of Otis Street Arts Project.

Afterhours is an exhibition featuring six artists whose works examine how obsolescence shapes individual and collective experiences. Reflecting on capitalist definitions of purpose, utility, and worth, Cecilia Kim, Leslie Holt, Chris Combs, Trystan Luah, McCoy Chance, and Electra Pelias invite viewers to reconsider how these systems of categorization have molded our relationships with objects, spaces, ourselves, and each other.  

This talk is supported by the Maryland State Arts Council.