Storage Devices and Balance Control: An Interview with Chris Cassimatis and DiFranco

Originally from St. Louis, Missouri, Chris Cassimatis graduated in Art from the University of Oregon, where he focused on stone sculpture and art history.

Although widely known for his sculptural work in stone, steel, and wood, he also develops a distinctive body of painting.

Chris Cassimatis working on a painting in his Chicago kitchen table studio with city skyline in the background, showing his early workspace setup from 2009 to 2022.
Chris Cassimatis early days Chicago kitchen table studio (2019–2022) Image courtesy of the artist’s wife, Irina Cassimatis

His pictorial work draws inspiration from machinery, technical manuals, and industrial forms, transforming functional imagery into something poetic and visually engaging.

Through bold composition, color, and structure, Cassimatis creates a dialogue between technique and imagination, showing how sculpture and painting can inform and strengthen one another.

When art meets technology: Chris Cassimatis on his creative process-Interview with De Franco

Your shapes have this architectural precision, but at the same time they feel really free. How do you balance control and instinct when you paint?


I greatly appreciate that this is your opening question David, because free and precise is the way I want the work to land. My methodology is largely designed around developing processes that are most likely to lead to this balance.

I feel it must be stated that for most of my life as an artist, I was a sculptor.

Installation view of Chris Cassimatis works at Modern Arts Midtown in 2024, showing three geometric paintings and one sculptural wall piece displayed on a grey gallery wal
Chris Cassimatis Modern Arts Midtown (Sculptural piece on the left is by artist Larry Roots), 2024 - Image courtesy of Logan Roots
Painting ‘Kickout’ and stone sculpture ‘Edifice No.16’ by Chris Cassimatis displayed in a Portland interior in 2024, shown on a wooden sideboard with lamp and objects. Courtesy of the Artist.
Chris Cassimatis, Kickout (painting) and Edifice No.16 (stone), Portland 2024. Image Courtesy of the Artist.
‘Fender Group’ by Chris Cassimatis, a 2024 acrylic painting on canvas over panel showing a stylized vehicle on a purple ground, framed and hung on a white wall. Courtesy of the Artist.
Chris Cassimatis, Fender Group, 2024, Acrylic on canvas over panel, 12 x 16 in. Image Courtesy of the Artist.
Three abstract geometric paintings by Chris Cassimatis displayed on a floor in Chicago, each with layered shapes, pastel tones and structural linework. Image Courtesy of the Artist.
Chris Cassimatis, three works from Chicago, 2022 - Image Courtesy of the Artist.

My approach to making paintings, which is what we are mainly discussing here, is very influenced by that time.

Painting for me is self-taught, whereas I learned to carve stone and weld at The University of Oregon. It was very intentional to carry over echoes of working in three dimensions into the process of painting.

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I think this is where the precision comes from. Partially technique, but a lot
of what carried through is a deep commitment to patience; being precise takes time. The free feeling you are referring to is the aspect of my practice that I work on the most.

Two dogs, Laika and Bran, sitting on a rug in front of a fireplace beneath Chris Cassimatis’s painting ‘Hydrolic Control’ in 2024. Image Courtesy of the Artist.
Chris Cassimatis, Laika and Bran with HydrĐŸlic Control, 2024. Image Courtesy of the Artist.

I found it to be particularly challenging with sculpture, because the cost of materials and space made experiments expensive. Out of fear of ruining an expensive block of stone, I would spend weeks designing an entire piece before ever even starting to carve.

I enjoyed the commitment to labor that followed – which can be meditative – but if I were going to switch mediums to painting, I wanted more mystery built in. Paint is low stakes compared to stone and stainless steel, so it is
the perfect medium for allowing things to evolve throughout the process.

‘NW Hilltop’ by Chris Cassimatis, a 2025 painting depicting an interior with two red chairs and a circular blue floor pattern, shown against a light wooden wall. Image Courtesy of the Artist
Chris Cassimatis, NW Hilltop, 2025, 24 x 36 in. Image Courtesy of the Artist.


Early stages of a painting are where I commit to the largest momentary instinctive gestures.

It is always the goal that some part of those actions will show through the final picture. I think of it as building paintings, and as I build, my need for control takes over slowly, until the last passages might be fretted over for days.


Looking at your work, it feels like every color is in exactly the right place. Do you plan your palette in advance, or do you follow the flow as you go?


I like this as a follow up to the last question, because color is the main aspect of painting that I try to keep loose.

‘Parts List for a Love Story’ by Chris Cassimatis, a 2023 painting with mechanical abstract forms on a blue background and a textured lower band. Image Courtesy of the Artist
Chris Cassimatis, Parts List for a Love Story, 2023, 18 x 24 in. Image Courtesy of the Artist.

In recent work, the subject matter has become more reality based, so color is the biggest area of discovery. The first paint to hit the canvas is always leftover from a prior project.

I keep working samples of every hue in a painting all the way until it is varnished, then reuse them in future work.

This creates a kind of continuum as the colors flow from one canvas to the next. It also allows for some real experimentation, as I never end up using pigments straight from the tube.

As I progress through a painting, I try to keep things spontaneous for as long as possible. Once I become attached to what is happening on the canvas, I move the painting into the computer.

Chris Cassimatis’s sculpture studio in Salt Lake City in 2018, showing tools, work tables and a tall stone sculpture in progress near the entrance. Image Courtesy of the Artist.
Chris Cassimatis, Sculpture studio Salt Lake City, Utah, 2018. Image Courtesy of the Artist.
Dog Laika lying on the floor in Chris Cassimatis’s basement studio in 2023, surrounded by painting tables and a work in progress. Image Courtesy of the Artist.
Chris Cassimatis, Basement studio with Laika, 2023. Image Courtesy of the Artist.
Studio templates and cut shapes used by Chris Cassimatis to develop compositions and structural balance in his painting process, shown arranged across a large work surface. Image Courtesy of the Artist.
Chris Cassimatis, studio templates and shape studies used in his painting process. These cut forms, originally developed during his sculptural years, serve as modular tools for building composition, balance and structural rhythm. Image Courtesy of the Artist.


What I mean by that, is that I take a photo of the work and upload it into what is basically a free version of Photoshop, called Gimp.

I do this to play with wild ideas late in the process, without risking painting over the elements I like. Within this program, I am able to create many different layers of color and lines on top of whatever state the painting is in, in real life.

Chris Cassimatis, art practice insight, his studio and work in progress. Image Courtesy of the Artist.

I can toggle these layers on and off and use them to make up to a few hundred possible directions for the work to
take.

Then I narrow these down to the ones I find most interesting. In the current painting I’m working on, I have twenty-six variations still in the running out of ninety-five created (although I think it might just be between version #58 and version #82).

Chris Cassimatis, studio views and works in progress. These panels show the two poles of his process: atmospheric color fields built through slow layering, and architectural linework mapped with precision. Together they reveal how intuition and structure intertwine long before a painting reaches its final state. Image Courtesy of the Artist.

Once I choose just one, I start to work the painting in that direction, always with the possibility of putting it back into the computer if I feel it isn’t working. A nice side effect of this process is that I have become very
good at hand-mixing the many hues that a computer can spit out.

Your compositions look like little abstract cities. Are there stories or memories behind them, or is it all about form and balance?


I divide my paintings thus far between three series. The first and most abstract, titled Gestural Geometry, represents the beginnings of my journey into painting. At that time, I was particularly focused on carrying over my sculptural instincts.

Chris Cassimatis, Modern Arts Midtown Gallery with Gestural Geometry Series, 2020, Omaha. Image Courtesy of the Artist.

I decided that the most obvious through-line for this was shape. I cut hundreds of abstract shapes out of thick watercolor paper, like ones I made to trace lines within stone sculptures.

I could move them around the canvas before tracing them with an acrylic paint pen, and explore sculptural concerns like form and balance.

Chris Cassimatis walking past his painting ‘Entanglement Theory’ in Chicago, showing abstract geometric forms in soft tones and bold accents. Image Courtesy of the Artist
Chris Cassimatis, Entanglement Theory, Chicago, IL. Image Courtesy of the Artist.


Recently, I have found it more important to represent real moments in time, and I have been titling my current work after the street where a source photo was taken.

This is very much related to memories, including the way that our phones/cameras function as backup storage devices for them.

At the same time, I want the work to become its own thing, and for it to invoke more personal stories or recollections in the viewer.


Geometry plays a big role in your work — does that come from a more technical mindset or just your natural way of seeing space and drawing?


I believe that my mind functions like that of an engineer or architect, and I want this to be visible in the work. But as an art lover myself, I am very often drawn to paintings that seem to be made with pure emotion and the absence of control. This is why I work so hard at trying to stay loose with it all, as contradictory as that sounds.

Chris Cassimatis 1. Cloud Stories, Acrylic on Canvas 18"x24". 2. Raintaker, Acrylic on Canvas 18"x24". 3. Calle Gral. Juan Cano, Acrylic on Canvas over panel 30"x40". 4. Rule of Three, Acrylic on Canvas 30"x40". Image Courtesy of the Artist.

Painting by Chris Cassimatis titled SW Sherwood, showing a striped chair and ball against a bright yellow floor with a teal side table. Image Courtesy of the Artist.
Chris Cassimatis, SW Sherwood. Image Courtesy of the Artist
Painting by Chris Cassimatis titled Snow Plow Lift, showing a stylized mechanical system with gears, rods and circular forms in bright pastel tones. Image Courtesy of the Artist.
Chris Cassimatis, Snow Plow Lift. A mechanical dream pulled apart into color, rhythm and precision. Image Courtesy of the Artist.

Your paintings have something almost sculptural about them, with all those planes and cuts. Have you ever thought about taking that language into three dimensions?


As I mentioned earlier, it was very important to me that my sculpture practice was carried through into my paintings. You asking this makes me feel successful in this pursuit.

Regarding the future, I do not ever plan to stop painting, but I have never ruled out adding sculpture back into the mix. The reason I gave up sculpture was economic; it became too expensive to keep an industrial studio and to store and move heavy work. Overhead began to feel like the antithesis of creativity.

Painting by Chris Cassimatis titled Low Tide, featuring overlapping geometric forms in muted pastels and teal tones, arranged in a grid-like composition. Image Courtesy of the Artist.
Chris Cassimatis, Low Tide. A diagram softened into atmosphere, where structure drifts like shoreline shapes. Image Courtesy of the Artist.

If the math on this ever changes, I would love to see how the sculpture would be influenced by the painting, and vice versa.

There’s always a sense of calm in your pieces, a kind of silence. Is that something you aim for intentionally, or is it just your natural rhythm coming through?


This is certainly a quality that I am looking for in the work. If I am achieving it, then I would have to say that it arises out of the endless hours I spend staring at each piece, deliberating over which version sits the most still yet exciting.

My techniques for applying paint to canvas are all very time consuming, but a lot of time is spent just looking at the work and seeking out the perfect rhythm to end on.

What kind of references stay with you - artists, designers, architecture, music - what feeds your visual world?


On a day-to-day level, I really try to be open to inspiration coming from anywhere. I have two large dogs and go on at least three walks a day.

Painting by Chris Cassimatis titled Regulator, depicting a stylized mechanical circuit with switches, wires and symmetrical components in muted pastel tones. Image Courtesy of the Artist.
Chris Cassimatis, Regulator. A circuit turned into choreography, each component balancing color and control. Image Courtesy of the Artist.
Painting by Chris Cassimatis titled Power Train Arrangement, showing a pastel-toned mechanical silhouette above a textured teal field, blending diagrammatic and landscape forms. Image Courtesy of the Artist.
Chris Cassimatis, Power Train Arrangement. A schematic that reads like a landscape, drifting between machinery and horizon. Image Courtesy of the Artist

It is amazing how many new things of interest can be found on a simple loop around a neighborhood, even one that you have traversed hundreds of times.

In terms of painters that I am most influenced by: I think of Michael Craig Martin, Hillary Pecis, and Jonas Wood.

In terms of artists whom I admire: there are countless, but Charlotte Keats; Pedro Reyas; Phyllida Barlow; Pablo Merchante; Bisa Butler; Peter Mohall; Woody De Othello; Alicia Kwade; Eduardo Chillida would be the current tip of the iceberg.

It is such a very rich period visually – if you can find time to sift through it all. Outside of the fine art world, I am most inspired by modernist architecture.

Artist Chris Cassimatis standing on an upper level next to a tall wooden sculptural installation in Aspen, shown in an architectural interior with warm lighting. Image Courtesy of the Artist.
Chris Cassimatis with a section of a large sculpture installation in Aspen. Image Courtesy of the Artist.

Some favorites I have only experienced through images would be Oscar Niemeyer; Albert Frey; Marcel Breuer; Carlo Scarpa; Tivadar Balogh; and Ray Kappe.

I have had the privilege of visiting some homes designed by Luis Barragan and I consider these experiences to be almost religious in nature. Living in Portland, I feel fortunate to have superb examples of Northwest Regional Modernism close by.

I am constantly on the lookout for homes hitting the market that were designed by some of Portland’s local architects: Pietro Belluschi; Frank Shell; Van Evera Baily; and William Fletcher, to name a few. Touring these homes provides source images for my current work.

Marble sculpture by Chris Cassimatis titled Part# 002, featuring interlocking white geometric forms with circular cutouts on a wooden base. Image Courtesy of the Artist
Chris Cassimatis, Part# 002. Marble on wood base. Image Courtesy of the Artist.
Artist Chris Cassimatis walking past his wall sculpture Construct No. 7, made of slate, stainless steel and brass, with curved dark elements mounted in a metal frame. Image Courtesy of the Artist
Chris Cassimatis with Construct No. 7, slate, stainless steel and brass. Image Courtesy of the Artist.

I find a house tour to be such an interesting subject, particularly when the home is not staged. Sometimes the furniture you see has lived in its spot for decades and witnessed an entire generation pass through.

It’s all dusted and primed to look its best. These will be some of the last moments that a house holds a certain character before the next owner replaces furniture and objects, creating entirely different memories.

Your colors have a unique energy, somewhere between pastel and industrial tones.
Do you have any color rules, or do you just mix until it feels right?


In the 15 years I was primarily a sculptor, I almost never thought about color. When I moved to painting, this is what caused the most anxiety. Around this time, I was reading a book by Michael Craig Martin, who coincidentally moved from sculpture to painting.

William Havu Gallery booth at SOFA Chicago showing Chris Cassimatis in conversation with visitors, alongside sculptural works and framed pieces on display. Image Courtesy of the Artist and the Gallery
William Havu Gallery booth at SOFA Chicago, 2019. Image Courtesy of the Artist and the Gallery.

He discussed also being intimidated, until he realized that there are no actual rules about color.

That he could just feel that they worked, and that was enough. This pushed me to developed methods that constantly explore color rather than to follow any rules.

When you start a new piece, do you have a clear idea in mind, or do you let the process take you somewhere unexpected?


For the last two series, Parts and Edifice, I am working from either 1960’s technical drawings or photographs taken with my iPhone.

Painting by Chris Cassimatis titled Santa Rosa Way, showing a sunlit interior with chairs, a table, books and soft pink curtains in pastel tones. Image Courtesy of the Artist
Chris Cassimatis, Santa Rosa Way. Acrylic on canvas over panel. Image Courtesy of the Artist.

Each painting starts with a line drawing taken directly from the source material, but I let the color palette and the way the paint is applied, unfold in real time.


The color holds a lot of the emotion; so even though I know the subject quite clearly, it is still exciting to see how it presents in its final form. (As an aside, the linear nature of reality feels like a worthy subject right now)

What’s your studio like - super organized and clean, or more of a beautiful chaos where ideas happen?


I paint in a spare bedroom, so it needs to be organized, both in terms of functionality and presentation.

Two works by Chris Cassimatis installed in a private residence: Skyline and NW Hilltop. Acrylic on canvas over panel. Image Courtesy of the Artist.

I tend to work on one painting at a time, and the studio gets a little more chaotic over time. However, I won’t start something new without completely resetting my space.

Looking ahead, is there something new you want to explore bigger scales, new materials, or a totally different direction?


Nothing as ambitious as pivoting from sculpture to painting, but I would love to expand to a larger painting studio.

Abstract painting by Chris Cassimatis with layered geometric forms in orange, teal and grey on a large canvas. Image Courtesy of the Artist.
Chris Cassimatis, An Island for Two. Acrylic on canvas 36"×48". Image Courtesy of the Artist.

My last four studios have been a kitchen table in downtown Chicago, two basements, and a third-floor bedroom looking out towards Mt. St. Helens.

I have dreams of making a giant mess across multiple large canvases, which in all honesty, I could probably achieve in 300 square feet if it were not in my home.

I find the art world fascinating, and I read, watch, and listen to as much as possible to keep up with it. That said, I don’t really dwell on how I fit in it all.

The work has its own momentum, and my motivations for being in the studio have long since moved on from any dreams of being famous.

Artist Chris Cassimatis hanging upside down in his studio above a large work table covered with inks, tools and drawings, showing his playful approach to art making.
Chris Cassimatis in his studio, mid-process and mid-air, a portrait that captures the mix of precision, play and controlled chaos inside his practice. Image Courtesy of the Artist.

In truth, I just wish for enough success such that it continues to make sense for me to keep producing art. It is a privilege that I cherish.

And finally, do you think art can still have a political or transformative role, or is it more about personal expression these days?

Support for institutions is currently in crisis from many fronts. I hope that as this trickles down, there is still enough to keep all realms of art-making alive.

My work happens to fall more in the realm of personal expression, but I have endless respect for artists who tackle the big questions.

The arts and more broadly, humanity itself, is always worse off if artists are not free.

Team Catapult Projects says thank you to Chris Cassimatis and Di Franco for the Interview

Follow Chris Cassimatis on Instagram.

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