LA CROSSE, Wis, (WLAX/WEUX) – Chase Gentry first came to my awareness with his TikTok account. His videos, drawing the quirkiest and most intricate characters I had seen in a long time came across my For You Page. I honestly thought this must be a person must be from one of the coasts, or (more likely) a Scandinavian country. Then, I found out he was doing a gallery show at the Pump House, so I figured he was from Minneapolis, Milwaukee, or Chicago. It never crossed my mind that he could be born, raised and creating right here in La Crosse, Wisconsin.
To put it simply, Chase is unique. His style is as recognizable from across the room as it is uniquely specific to him. You won’t see a piece of his and think, “Is that by Chase?” You will know, immediately, that Chase Gentry has touched the work that you are seeing.
Chase in point, I chose him as the Artist of the Month for July because he was commissioned by Gundersen and Bellin Health (as one of two artists) to paint a mural facing their new clinic in downtown La Crosse. I was not aware that Chase was chosen… I saw the mural. I looked at it, with the beautiful, tryptic of the red-headed, astral woman, weaved in and amongst some very recognizable, cartoonish, city dwellers, and thought “Chase did this.” I saw flowers growing out of heads, “Muppet-like” elongated faces setting up their podcasting equipment, and silhouettes of many-a-cat throughout the beautiful, and brightly colored, mural and knew that Chase did it. I saw the bubble letters, vividly stating, “Love Lives Here…” and knew that I was looking at a Gentry.
More than that, his work speaks to me in a way that I didn’t fully understand or recognize until I met him. There is an empathy within a menace to his work. It doesn’t seem of this world… so there is an anxiety to it… but it’s also welcoming and bright in a way that suggests softness and calm. His drawings have character and story to them without saying a word. That story usually suggests a commonality or, at the very least, an underlying empathy of a shared plight. His work feels like it doesn’t judge me… like I want to personally know the beings that inhabit the scene I am looking at.
Chase was not alone in the making of my new favorite mural. An Artist by the name of Neo Medina was in charge of the woman, her ethereal tryptic, and the hair that weaves throughout the piece. Gundersen is based in La Crosse, where Chase is from, while Bellin is based in the Green Bay area, where Neo is from. Medina’s touch, style and color were the perfect harmony notes to the cartoony and other-dimensional nature of Chase’s work. I highly suggest you check out the work that Neo does. Not only is he an incredible artist who continues to impress with every brushstroke he makes… he is also giving back with his work. He paints murals, with the support of the communities he is in, and with different youth organizations in that community. So, he beautifies the city while showing kids how to paint, how to make positive impacts and how to organize for the greater good.
For his part, Chase is exactly the kind of representative one would want from their hometown. He is a humble, kind and sweet young man with bright eyes and a positive outlook. His talent speaks for itself. One doesn’t get the kind of acknowledgment that he has without coming through in that department. He speaks confidently but with a humility that suggests he wants to learn as much as he can about the mediums that turn him on. He hasn’t yet begun to create… but he isn’t searching for the next big thing either.
He credits his parents, Kip and Linda, for encouraging him to be “Chase.” He lost both of them, separately, at young ages but says they both played important roles in shaping the man and artist he has become. You can see that in his work. There is a child-like innocence to his pieces as well as a deep empathy. You’ll see the quirky, “child making up imaginary friends” in everything he produces but you’ll also see messages like “Don’t Be Afraid”, smiles peeking out from behind the flowers and happy, yellow, dudes, crawling out from the black-and-white hustle and bustle of mundanity.
Chase is special. I don’t know how else to say it.
If you haven’t seen the mural yet… please do. If you haven’t seen Chase’s work yet, please do. If you get the pleasure of meeting Chase and discovering how special of a person he is… and how much La Crosse benefits from having a PERSON and an artist like him among its ranks… run, don’t walk, to that opportunity and, please, tell him one of his biggest fans says hello.
