A plein-air painter, Chinian describes his work as ‘prosaic realism.’ Prosaic – thus, precisely, not poetic – his subjects often consist of moments overlooked and the spaces between the things encountered in everyday life. He is especially drawn to the moments when and where the man-made world intersects with nature. Shapes are rendered broadly, often with a knife; planes of road, parking lot, and sky are often depicted as large, flat shapes on the canvas. Beauty is found in the play of light and shadow on a wall or on the ground plane. By choosing subjects without strong associations, but nonetheless ‘universal’ in their recognizability, Chinian’s work priviledges absence over presence, spaces over objects, the ordinary over the extra-ordinary. It is as if to say that art happens everywhere; one only has to stop and look. 

– Jeff Crane