My work crosses between abstraction and representation, borne from strong emotions in response to place. I am drawn to expansive natural landscapes and urban environments, both of which I find compelling because of their unique and different qualities of space and light, materiality and forms. With my background in architecture and urban design I love paying with surfaces, angles and perspectives.
All my work start outside with sketches, notes and photographs to memorise what caught my attention. Later I reimagine it all in my studio forming new layers of information through memories leading to a reinvention. The reinterpretation may not resemble the original scene and ambiguity is possible I have sketched throughout my life gathering impressions of light and spatial qualities which I then rework in my studio. I like reimagining them through abstraction and extending the impressions beyond literal.
I like to work in series making several paintings at once to find continuity among the work. I keep revisiting certain subjects because of their large scale and their possibilities: they are an invitation to stand in a shifting space, fragile yet powerful, with a big horizon suggesting the spaces that lie beyond.
In Victorian Birmingham looking ‘right’.
...’Cristina Gardiner evokes sense of place with stunning landscapes.’ (Hugh Pearman – RIBA Journal Eyeline Competition 2020)
Diploma of Applied Art Istituto d’ Arte di Porta Romana, Florence, Italy
Bachelor of Art, Post Graduate in Architecture, and Master in Design and Theory of Architecture, Birmingham University
Masters of Science in Conservation of Historic Building, Bath University
Portmeor Program (12 months) – St Ives School of Art
Various courses
202623/09-10/10 – ‘VISTA’ Group exhibition at the Core Gallery, Solihull
2026 18/06-1/08 – ‘RBSA Summer Show’
2026 19/5-13/6 RBSA Membership ‘Small Works’ group exhibition
2025 01/07 – 02/08 – RBSA Summer Show 2025
2025 9/01 – 8/02 – RBSA Birmingham – Friends 2025 Exhibition
2024 13/06 – 21/07 – RBSA Birmingham – Summer Show 2024
2024 29/02 – 06/04 – RBSA Birmingham- The Printing Prize, selected
2023 5/09 – 18/10 RBSA Birmingham- The Drawing Prize, selected
2023 – 12 January-17 February – Worcester OPEN Climate Change Edition Group Exhibition at THE ART HOUSE, Worcester
2022 – 15 September/October – RBSA Birmingham – Prize Exhibition- selected
2022 – August – Worcestershire Open studios
2022 – 13/23 May – Elmslie House, Malvern – The Space Between – Group Exhibition
2022 – 15/24 April – Borlaise Smart Room, St Ives – InSight – Group Exhibition
2021 – November – A Pickled Thought Gallery, Totness – Group Printing Exhibition
2021 – August – Worcestershire Open Studios
2021 – July and August – Greenman Gallery – Buxton – 100 years of the Pinnacle Club for Women’s Climbers
2021 – Eyeline International Competition RIBA Journal – Shortlisted
2021 – June/ July – RBSA Birmingham – Friend’s Exhibition
2020 – Eyeline International Competition RIBA Journal– Practitioner’s 3rd Place
2020 – June/July – RBSA Birmingham – Friend’s Exhibition
Group Exhibition: RBSA on Tour – Winterbourne House, Birmingham –
Group Exhibition: ‘Stories- Circle in the Square’ Birmingham Art Circle at RBSA Gallery
Group Exhibition: RBSA Annual Exhibition: 19/11-5/01/27