Biography

American sculptor Christopher Slatoff was born April 27, 1953 in Oakland, California. His father, Howard Slatoff, was a painter, art professor, Dean of Men and Chairman of the Art Department at California State University Hayward, as well as professor at the Academy of Art University in San Francisco where Christopher became his assistant.  Following the family tradition and choosing sculpting as a profession, Slatoff studied in both the United States and France, ultimately earning his Bachelor of Fine Arts in sculpture from California State University, Long Beach. Slatoff has held several solo exhibitions and has participated in many group shows at various galleries, museums and universities in southern California, Arizona and New York.

Among some of his public art commissions are Sheltering Wings for the San Diego Port Commission at Shoreline Park in Coronado, and seven life-sized sculpture projects in Japan, Holland and the Canary Islands. In 1986, Slatoff received a California Artist-in-Residence Grant to work with special-needs children in the Vista School System. He has been a guest artist facilitator in sculpture for children at the Metropolitan State Hospital, a state facility, in Norwalk, California. Slatoff is the official sculptor of the Via Dolorosa Society, for which he is sculpting 60 life-sized figures to be cast in bronze and installed at Mission San Luis Rey in San Diego County. His Pieta can be seen at the Mission San Diego and at Fuller Theological Seminary in Pasadena where Slatoff is an Artist in Residence and teaches at their summer programs in Italy.

In 2007 the world-renowned author Ray Bradbury began collaboration on a sculpture by Slatoff depicting Bradbury’s father carrying a young Bradbury home from the circus. The sculpture, Fr. Electrico, has already received wide acclaim. Slatoff is currently working on an eight-foot-tall version of the sculpture. A documentary is being filmed about the heroic-size sculpture.

In 2008, Slatoff was the recipient of the Gold Medal for Best Sculpture by his artist peers at the California Art Club’s 97th Annual Gold Medal Juried Exhibition at the Pasadena Museum of California Art for his sculpture, Fr. Electrico. Slatoff teaches sculpture at The Getty Museum, California State University, Long Beach and Art Center at Night at Art Center College of Design. Christopher Slatoff is a Sculptor Member of the California Art Club and Chairman of the Sculpture Committee.

Visit Christopher Slatoff’s Web site at: http://www.slatoffsculpture.com