Wall collages featured in next Gallery exhibit

In his artist’s statement he describes his work as autobiographical in nature exploring his personal, social and political perspective on life and world events.

Much of Christensen’s work involves social observation and specifically observations of people. He explores the tension, communication, or lack of communication taking place within social contexts. Social anxieties play a large role in the underlying themes.

“I try to capture the sense of being overwhelmed by external forces, images and ideas,” Christensen said. “I find it important to break up these ideas with images of small, ordinary or even random objects: a drawing of a pronghorn antelope, a paper bag, an abandoned shoe, a telephone.”

Other ideas and sub-themes within the work include: written journal-like entries, remembered stories from childhood, nostalgia for a past that doesn’t exist, obsessive compulsive tendencies, collecting and hoarding as a means of psychological longing, hermetic and coded connections, charts and diagrams, family, education, political events and humor.

Christensen, 65, has been a fine-art painter as well as a location scout and location manager for television shows and films. He worked with films such as the 2008 Oscar-winning “There Will Be Blood,” and the 2007 Tommy Lee Jones film, “In the Valley of Elah.”

The show is free and open to the public 9 a.m.-4:30 p.m. weekdays.