Christopher Cristóbal Newberry Bio
Christopher Cristóbal Newberry was born in Mexico City on 15.11.51 – a palindrome. Speculatively, this may be why he has been fascinated by symmetry, repetitiveness, cycles and change and progression through dialectics and complementarity.
He attended 11 different schools in Mexico and the USA before enrolling at the Universidad Ibero Americana where he read Communication Science.
In early 1976 he came to travel in Europe on a one-way air ticket. He worked and hitchhiked for several months. Down to only £5 in his pocket, he hitched a ride from Paris to London, where he had been told he could always find a job. He did. The very first day. He has lived in Britain ever since.
This is a list of his activities more or less in chronological order from age 14: Tobacco shop attendant. Teacher of English as a foreign language. Teacher of Economics. Media analyst for the Ministry of Communications. Youth hostel worker. Peat-piler. Abattoir gut-cutter and cleanser. Housing adviser. Magazine editor. Script writer. Educational television producer. Documentary film maker. Graphic designer. Voiceover artist. Writer. Father. Driver. Cook. And always photographer and image creator.
Much of his work is verisimilar – that is, it looks like truth or reality, but is not. That is, very much like a lot of social media and politics, which oversimplify a complex world, presenting their version as truth, whereas it is obfuscation at best, lies at worst. Messages designed to be believed rather than understood. The difference between that post-truth approach is that the purpose of his images is to invite viewers to see that they are false or exaggerated (see his book in PDF format, True Colours, at www.christophernewberry.com). His images are a distortion of reality in the sense that they are simplified to resemble what can only exist as Platonic ideals: Symmetry, straight lines . . . Euclidian geometric shapes. These shapes exist perfectly only in the mind not in nature, therefore his images cannot exist in reality.
Amongst others, he has exhibited at The Tower Art Centre, "Vistas in a Crowded Land", 2009. Ten Days at the Laundry, in Winchester, 2010. The Link Gallery, University of Winchester, "Gestalt Blue Skies", 2010. Solo exhibition at Creative Innovation Centre, Taunton, "Platonic Views", 2018. Creates Gallery in the Forest of Dean Heritage Centre, Platonic Views", 2019. The National Art Museum in Constanta, Romania, "Platonic Views" 2019. Dean Clough Galleries in Halifax, "Platonic Views", 2020 (cut short by Covid). The Light Room in Alresford, Hampshire, "Lockdown", 2022. The Arc, Winchester, "Moon Shots", 2023. Wrote book: "True Colours" https://www.christophernewberry.com/_files/ugd/edbc0e_0ffe4bdf9a6e4665961f271aaa39a2d7.pdf
He is author of two books on architecture and social history: “Look Up! Winchester” and “Look Up! Salisbury”. “Look Up! Oxford” is in development.
He has a partner and two sons, now young men.