Christopher French (b. 1957) is a painter, art critic and curator whose abstract works explore the relationship between visual perception, texture and the natural world. Born in St. Louis, Missouri, and raised in Sacramento, he earned his B.A. from the University of California, Davis, in 1980, studying with Robert Arneson and Wayne Thiebaud. After graduation, French toured with the Royal Lichtenstein Quarter-Ring Circus before returning to painting. Following his move to New York in 1986, he began incorporating Braille paper into his compositions, using its raised surfaces to explore the relationship between sight and touch. His later paintings draw inspiration from natural patterns, landscape and the interactions of color and light. French received a National Endowment for the Arts Fellowship in 1993, a residency at the Cité Internationale des Arts in Paris in 1996 and a Joan Mitchell Foundation Fellowship in 1999. His work is represented in major institutions including the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, and Phillips Collection, Washington, D.C.