Born in a small town on the outskirts of Chicago, Chris Guarino grew up drawing pictures of monsters, playing in the ruins of old factories, and exploring the sewers and storm drains near his home. Always a quiet child, Chris kept to himself and his imagination through most of his childhood. Just before his seventh birthday a nearly fatal illness changed his life. Robbed of the ability to speak for nearly three months, Chris was left to communicate by drawing pictures, and building characters & creatures out of household rubbish to act out scenes to pass the time. Although many of the pictures and "toys" he made were somewhat disturbing, his parents encouraged what appeared to be one of the only natural talents the boy had. When he was old enough (and well enough), his parents saw to it that Chris was given the finest artistic guidance they could afford. Years later, Chris began to show his work in Chicago, making a name for himself in the art community in Bucktown and Wicker Park. He became a resident artist at The Aesthetic Eye Gallery in 2001, where his work was shown and sold on a monthly basis.
Longing to see what the world had to offer him, Chris traveled to London when he was nineteen and began working in a bronze foundry part-time, and showing his work around Camden Town where he lived for four years. London changed Chris in ways he (still a soft spoken young man) cannot quite put into words, except to say that the age and immense history of the place and it's many graveyards and old churches haunt him in a way nothing else has. Seeking yet another change, Chris moved back to the States in 2005. This time to the historic Capital Hill neighborhood of Denver, CO. There he joined up with several galleries, learned to weld, and perfected his life casting and sculpting talents under his mentor David Parvin. Since then he has participated in countless group and solo shows in Denver, he has dabbled in prosthetic make up sculpture for the theatre and motion picture industry on such projects as "The Wiz" and "Ink" where he sculpted the masks for all principle characters. Most recently he has begun working with "Back to the Picture Gallery" in San Francisco, CA. Now an international artist, Chris's work has appeared in several art publications, and in 2009, 5280 Magazine named him as their Reader's Choice for Top Local Artist. When asked what he sees himself doing in the future, Chris is reluctant to answer. Highly superstitious, he feels by misspeaking about his wishes for the future he may curse himself to live out his nightmares forever in a place where nothing changes, his heart is always sick, and there is no hope of anything getting better. He does, however, offer us this, "No matter what happens to me, or where I am or end up, I will always be creating something in one form or another. Not because I am obligated to, and not because I really gain anything from it, . . . but because I cannot stop. . . I simply cannot stop."