Christopher Conte
was born in Bergen, Norway where he began drawing at age 3. At age 6, shortly after moving to New York, he started taking college art classes at Hofstra University following a recommendation from his first grade teacher.While still in high school he also attended St. John’s University under an advanced placement program. In the 11th grade he was awarded several scholarships to attend Pratt Institute in Brooklyn, NY. Once at Pratt, he also studied human anatomy at Columbia Presbyterian Hospital through a program sponsored by Columbia University.
While an illustration major at Pratt, Christopher began creating his first mechanical sculptures as illustrations. His professors strongly encouraged this new direction and by his senior year, most of his work was 3-dimensional.
After earning a Bachelors Degree in Fine Art (BFA) from Pratt Institute, he entered the prosthetics field and began making artificial limbs for amputees in New York. Along with a combined love for sculpture, medical-science, and biomechanics, the field enabled Chris to apply his natural talents to help amputees which he still does to this day working as a full-time certified prosthetist.
Creating sculpture, purely for the sake of being sculpture, however, never escaped as his deepest passion.
With his sculptures, Christopher uses a wide range of experience along with diverse materials and construction techniques to create his unique one-of-a-kind pieces. The work is usually a combination of original cast components with found/recycled parts using materials ranging from bronze to carbon fiber. Many of the exotic materials used in both the aerospace industry and the prosthetics field have found their way into his work.
While a strong connection with robotics and technology is present in all of Chris’ work, ancient techniques such as lost-wax bronze casting have become an integral part of the process as well. The process involved in creating just one sculpture can often take months, sometimes, in the case of a series, several years.
In 2007, Christopher began offering these unique pieces for sale to the public for the first time. His sculptures have appeared on The Discovery Channel, The Learning Channel, MTV Networks and in Popular Science Magazine. His work has also sparked the interest of the FBI, Lockheed Martin, and recently Chris began working closely with engineers and model makers at Northrop Grumman.
