NORTH SALEM, N.Y. - Tom Christopher has a new talk show.
But instead of hosts and guests, it’s artwork and objects that are having the conversations.
The artist’s latest exhibit – “Rooms, Not Walls: Paintings in Lived Space” – opened recently at Lift Trucks Art, an independent studio and showroom in the North Salem hamlet of Croton Falls.
Christopher’s new paintings are displayed alongside classical foundry sculptures, industrial artifacts, and other curated pieces.
The pairings are, he said, intended to “create a dialogue between materials, histories, and forms” by inviting folks to “look more closely and experience the work in context.”
It’s all about “process,” he said.
Christopher has worked for more than 30 years with Galerie Taménaga in Japan.
In 2025, the Tokyo-based art gallery and MATSUSO, a luxury furniture maker, presented his paintings alongside furniture and designed objects in a showroom environment.
At first, Christopher was against the idea, believing that “art should stand on its own.”
But the response was immediate – people understood the work differently when it existed in a room rather than isolated on a white wall.
The exhibit in Tokyo – “Quiet Luxury” -- was based on the Japanese concept of ma, the use of meaningful negative space and deliberate relationships between objects.
During visits to the country, Christopher had witnessed how collectors deeply admired Japanese craftsmanship -- not only in art, but in furniture, objects, and design.
“There, art was not separated from exceptional objects. It lived beside them,” he said, referring to shokunin, or “the artisan’s spirit.”
The concept goes way beyond a job title or skill; it embraces the philosophy of lifelong dedication, self-improvement, and humility.
The experience shaped how he and Lift Trucks Art approached the “Rooms, Not Walls” installation.
“Not decoration. Not display. A setting in which the work can be encountered,” Christopher’s website explained.
It’s “built around movement, reinvention, and the belief that art should create a conversation with the materials, and imagination that produce it.”
ABOUT THE ARTIST
Christopher, who has been capturing New York City on canvas since 1981, wrote about his latest works:
“Not the skyline as postcard -- the city as pressure, as color, as noise made visible. Each painting is a record of what it feels like to be inside something that won’t hold still.
Against the stillness of stone statues and cold iron crucibles, the paintings do something unexpected. The contrast isn’t contradiction -- it’s conversation. Ancient objects, contemporary paint. Both carrying time in different ways.”
Born in Hollywood in 1952, Christopher trained at Art Center College of Design under Ward Kimball and Lorser Feitelson.
The Westchester resident has painted the Roseland Mural in Times Square at 225 feet wide, designed for Absolut Vodka, collaborated with Lichtenstein Editions at MASS MoCA, and shown from the Grand Palais in Paris to Galerie Taménaga in Tokyo.
Christopher’s work lives in the permanent collections of American art institutions and his paintings are also sold in galleries in Europe, Japan, and Beverly Hills.
ABOUT THE SHOW
“Rooms, Not Walls” will run through September.
Lift Trucks Art is located at 3 East Cross St. (off Route 22) in Croton Falls, N.Y.
The showroom is open from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. on Friday and Saturday and by appointment only Monday through Thursday.
For more information, email contact@lifttrucksart.com or tomchristopherartist@gmail.com.
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