Fritz Chesnut's paintings and drawings come from a fascination with audiences and performance. The 'art viewer' series employs actors to portray contemplation of an artwork and are meant to both evoke a sublime stillness and quite serenity. In contrast, the 'karaoke series' toys with the metaphor of fame as religion, drawing on parallels of religious ecstasy and rock idolatry. These impeccably detailed drawings and paintings are based on photos taken during karaoke performaces with a live band. Chesnut concentrates on moments of pause and abandonment where boundaries between audience/performance and fan/idol are blurred.

Earlier paintings from the "Starstruck" series depict audiences from MTV's show Total Request Live, crowds at tapings of The Today Show, and fans lining red carpets of movie premieres. Fans here come as close as possible to fame by both being on TV and in close proximity to their idols. Chesnut's work notes the parallel between entertainment and religion and the transcendental experience of fame.

Fritz Chesnut was born in Santa Fe, New Mexico in 1973 and raised in Santa Barbara, California. He received his BA from the University of California, Santa Cruz, in 1995 and his MFA from Rutgers University in 1997. Starstruck, his first solo exhibition, was presented at Bellwether in May of 2002. His paintings have also appeared in exhibitions in New York City at White Columns, The Bronx Museum of the Arts, Arena Gallery, the Dumbo Arts Center, in Buffalo at Hallwalls Contemporary Arts Center, and in Milan, Italy at Marella Arte Contemporanea. His work has been reviewed in The New York Times, The New Yorker, Time Out NY and Flash Art among others. Chesnut lives and works in New York City.