OM.2026.072 - C.R.E. Wells - USA - Visual Poetry and Color

OM.2026.072 -  collage on panel - 8 x 8 inches - C.R.E. Wells  -  USA - Visual Poetry and Color

 Chris Wells (publishing as C.R.E. Wells) is an American contemporary visual poet, writer, ambient musician, and digital collage artist based in Worthington, Ohio. He describes himself as an artist, educator, and technologist. His multi-disciplinary practice sits at the cutting edge of modern text subversion, bridging the gap between traditional print layouts, algorithmic glitch art, and deep drone soundscapes. [1, 2, 3, 4, 5]

An overview of his style, monographs, and multimedia portfolios reveals:

The Architecture of Tra and Visual Poetry

• Monograph Success: In late 2017, Wells achieved notable underground renown with his solo book, to let lack, published by the prestigious Timeglaset Editions in Malmö, Sweden. The publication firmly cemented his standing within international asemic and concrete poetry critique circles. [1]
• Tra (2018): He authored Tra (published via Lulu Press), an artist's book combining stark black-and-white visual poetry with dense digital collage. The book was conceptually inspired by standard railway safety signs—specifically the phrase "Do Not Stop On Tracks"—dissolving bureaucratic warnings into semantic noise and silence. [1, 2]
• Lovers Leap: His recent visual poems are excerpted from an ongoing metafictional novel project titled Lovers Leap. The visual sheets intentionally explore the friction between human semantic game-play and the chaotic, infinite creative structures of the non-human natural world. [1]

Digital Curation: Faint Press and Licentia Movendi

• Glitch and Digital Collage: Operating online under his curation house, Faint Press and his art journal Licentia Movendi, Wells publishes continuous streams of digital animation sketches, corrupted font formats, and hard-edged glitch art. [1]
• The Electronic Ambient Persona: Expanding his text work into sensory dimensions, Wells runs Dowsabel, an electronic, drone, and ambient musical project. His sound portfolios, such as the album What Lights, translate the same minimalist, haunting cadences of his physical books into acoustic, spatial textures. [1]

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