“[Chris] Combs is a local artist who specializes in work that’s savvy to, but also skeptical of, technology. He does gallery shows often, but always with new inventions and often previously unexplored subjects. ”
—Mark Jenkins, The Washington Post, July 21, 2023
Through handmade and custom-fabricated hardware, software, and enclosures, the electronic sculptures of Chris Combs respond to themes of surveillance, control, and algorithmic bias—and the viewer, using facial recognition and motion sensing. He works with a wide range of practices to create circuit boards, software, and enclosures for his sculptures, which both embrace and question technology.
Chris Combs is an artist based in Washington, D.C and Mount Rainier, Maryland whose sculptural artworks both incorporate and question technologies. His show Supercycle (IA&A at Hillyer, 2023) focused on cycles of hype, such as AI and cryptocurrencies. The Next Big Thing (MoCA Arlington Innovation Studio, 2024) recreated Hokusai’s Great Wave off Kanagawa with E-waste that reacted to visitors’ faces and movements. Outsized Effects (Gradient Projects, Thomas, WV, 2023–4) included the room-sized Allegheny Data Company, examining data mining through the visual lens of coal mining. Industry Standards (McLean Project for the Arts, 2023) featured 18 works of reclaimed industrial components, reflecting on surveillance and environmental destruction. Madness Method, a public art collaboration with David Greenfieldboyce, was part of 2021’s Georgetown GLOW.
Chris is the 2025 Artist in Residence at the Sanford Underground Research Facility, and has been a four-time recipient of the DC CAH Arts and Humanities Fellowship program. He is a graduate of the Corcoran College of Art + Design and was a photo editor for National Geographic. He joined Otis Street Arts Project in 2021.