Gregory Grenon Artist Statement
My paintings are about unidentified human beings. I paint them to identify them. They are reverse paintings of people on glass.
My paintings can be dark.
My paintings can be dangerous.
They are a river of glass.
Out of nowhere the pictures come and they prove all things.
They are the truth.
Above mere beauty, my work is expression of emotion, and division of the mind.
Dream ideas, explanations of love, hate, fear, pride and sorrow.
The mental state of feeling.
Unpleasant sensations.
Aloofness.
In destructive states of mind, I paint with the corners of my mouth, to make you angry.
I am fully aware of the reactions of the body, the head, and the face.
Positions of the face.
Instinctive reactions.
Memory cleverly performed with the external trickery of paint on glass.
Anti-social behavior- lies, and deceit.
Painting is my source of pleasure.
It is temptation and I will not back down.
I do not want to understand what I do.
I just want to get stronger.
Just look at what is around you.
It is my view.
It is a very fragile life we live and I always paint letters. Letters published when I paint them and I always finish the letters I was going to tear up.
Gregory Grenon Bio
I lived in Detroit, Michigan with my mother, father and three sisters for twenty-five years. While there I learned about and worked at many jobs concerned with the automobile industry. When I left there I was a working artist in what is known as the Cass Corridor, where artists made art and did not talk about art. I then lived in Chicago, Illinois and worked as an assistant printer from 1973-1975 at Landfall Press. It was there I learned about color-it was there where I was finally sure that I would be a painter not a teacher or printer.
Tired of the large, dirty, crowded cities of my life I moved to Portland, Oregon where I found that I could not escape the art inside of me. Throughout my career as an artist I have concentrated on the Face of Woman-moving toward the figure with special attention to the hands, never thinking I would ever sell these pictures-I just kept making them. Growing up in an emotional world, I use this emotion of my life in the life of my painting.
Bibliography
AWARDS
The Espy Foundation, Artist-in-Residence, March 2006
‘Hot Shop’ Artist-in-Residence, Museum of Glass, Tacoma, WA, May 2006
Vivian and Gordon Gilkey Center for the Print Commissioned Print, 1999
AirTouch Cellular Commissioned Print， 1998
Seattle Art Fair Commissioned Print, 1996
Beaverton Arts Commission, Best of Show, Painting 1995
National Endowment for the Arts Visual Arts Fellowship, Painting 1992
Oregon Arts Commission Individual Fellowship Award, 1984-85
State Fair All Oregon Art Annual Painting Prize, 1982
SOLO EXHIBITIONS
2013 “The Glass Opera” Laura Russo Gallery, Portland, OR
2012 “Outside Of Society”, Traver Gallery, Seattle, WA
2011 “Behavior”, Laura Russo Gallery, Portland, OR
“Dreams I’ve Been Having Lately”, Karen Echt Gallery, Chicago, IL
Morgan Contemporary Glass Invitational, Pittsburg, PA
“Working Through the Isolation” Clark Gallery, Lincoln, MA
2010 “Dreamland Circus” Traver Gallery, Seattle, WA
“Native Outsiders”, Laura Russo Gallery, Portland, OR
“Images Remain”, Friesen Gallery, Ketchum, ID
2009 “The Dense Fragrance Remains”, Heller Gallery, NYC, NY
“CALM INTERIOR/RAGING STORM” Traver Gallery, Seattle, WA
2008 “Coloring Temperament” Laura Russo Gallery, Portland, OR
“Unspeakable Hair”, Laura Russo Gallery, Portland, OR
“Muse”, Friesen Gallery, Sun Valley, ID
2007 “Questioning your Path”, William Traver Gallery, Seattle, WA
“Life is an Awkward Dance”, Laura Russo Gallery, Portland, OR
“Love and Consequence” Friesen Gallery, Sun Valley, ID
2006 “Uncertainty of a Dream”, Habatat Gallery, Chicago, IL
“Tell the Truth”, William Traver Gallery, Seattle, WA
2005 “Horses and Heroes”, Friesen Gallery, Sun Valley, ID
“Appearance”, Laura Russo Gallery, Portland, OR
2004 “Understand What Is Going On”, William Traver Gallery, Seattle, WA
“Extreme Probity”, Laura Russo Gallery, Portland, OR
“The Perfect Compromise”, Heller Gallery, New York, NY
“Anything that Suits Me”, Friesen Gallery, Sun Valley, ID
2003 “Ball, Bat and Glove”, Clark Gallery, Lincoln, MA
“Baseball is Second Only to Death”, Laura Russo Gallery, Portland, OR
“Extreme Company”, William Traver Gallery, Seattle, WA
2002 Heller Gallery, New York, New York
“Confidence”, Laura Russo Gallery, Portland, OR
“Looking Glass Writing”, William Traver Gallery, Seattle, WA
“Intentions/Intrusions”, Clark Gallery, Lincoln, MA
2000 “CHARACTER: standing, sitting, prone”, Laura Russo Gallery, Portland, OR
“Heads Up”, Museum of Northwest Art”, La Conner, WA
1999 “New American Landscape", Laura Russo Gallery, Portland, OR
“Other Americans”, William Traver Gallery,Seattle WA
1998 "Learning To Fly", Anne Reed Gallery, Ketchum, ID
"Memories and Regrets, Fits, Fears, Anguishes, Nightmares, Angers, and Neuroses",
William Traver Gallery, Seattle, WA
"Translucence", a retrospective, Paris Gibson Square Museum, Great Falls, MT
1997 "Descriptive Mentality", Laura Russo Gallery, Portland, OR
1996 "Making Pictures", Rena Haveson Gallery, Pittsburg, PA
1996 "Reflexions et Sensations", William Traver Gallery, Seattle, WA
"Disorder in the Dress, (The Bad Girls are Back)", Laura Russo Gallery, Portland, OR
"Emotion, Beauty", Anne Reed Gallery, Ketchum, ID
1995 "dirtywhitegirls", William Traver Gallery, Seattle, WA
"New Paintings", Laura Russo Gallery, Portland, OR
1994 "We Are Not Here To Kill You," Jamison/Thomas Gallery, Portland, OR
"First Lessons In Life," Clark Gallery, Lincoln, MA
"Everything Unknown Is Grand", Gasperi Gallery, New Orleans, LA
1993 "The Unidentified Woman", William Traver Gallery, Seattle, WA
"Emotion Precedes Thought", Jamison/Thomas Gallery, Portland, OR
1992 "Deep Dark Motives", Clark Gallery, Lincoln, MA
"The Woman Club", Jamison/Thomas Gallery, Portland, OR
"As Far As It Goes", Jamison/Thomas Gallery, New York, NY
"About Relationships", William Traver Gallery, Seattle, WA
1991 "Line, Color, Emotion", Jamison/Thomas Gallery, Portland, OR
"Moments", Gasperi Gallery, New Orleans, LA
1990 "It's Against the Rules", Jamison/Thomas Gallery, New York, NY
"Simple Views", Esther Saks Gallery, Chicago, IL
"Women on Women in Women", William Traver Gallery, Seattle, WA
"Women as a Second Language," Jamison/Thomas Gallery, Portland, OR
1989 "Certain Things", Jamison/Thomas Gallery, New York, NY
1988 "White Women", Jamison/Thomas Gallery, Portland, OR
"Recent Work", Jamison/Thomas Gallery, New York, NY
"Paintings and Screens", Traver Sutton Gallery, Seattle, WA
1987 Jamison/Thomas Gallery, Portland, OR
Jamison/Thomas Gallery, New York, NY
1986 "Traveling Show and Growing Up", Jamison/Thomas Gallery, Portland, OR
1986-82 The Fountain Gallery of Art, Portland, OR
1986-83 Traver-Sutton Gallery, Seattle, WA
1984 "Documents Northwest: The PONCHO Series", Seattle Art Museum, Seattle, WA
Donnally/Hayes Gallery, Seattle, WA
1979 Gallery 299, Portland State University, Portland, OR
GROUP EXHIBITIONS
2012 “Provenance”,Jordan Schnitzer Museum of Art, Eugene, OR
“Craft National”, Mulvane Museum of Art, Topeka, KS
“Human Rights Exhibition”, South Texas College, McAllen, TX
“Undressing Room”, Froelick Gallery, Portland, OR
2011 “Silver Summit”, Friesen Gallery, Ketchum, ID
“Identify Yourself”, Craft Alliance, ST Louis, MO
2010 The Montreal Museum of Fine Art, Montreal, Quebec
Bellevue Art Museum, Bellevue, WA
2009 “Glorious Glass”, The Art Center, St Petersburg, FL
“The Business of Art”, Daniel Kany Gallery, Portland, ME
Christmas Salon Exhibition, Clark Gallery, Lincoln, MA
2008 “Visages: Face Revisited”, Rockford Art Museum, Rockford, IL
Jenkins/Johnson Gallery, San Francisco, CA
2007 Habatat Gallery, Chicago, IL
Condon Biennial, Condon, OR
2006 14 Artists/ 14 Years, Mahaffey Fine Arts, Vivian and Gordon Gilkey Center, Portland Art Museum
20th Anniversary Exhibition, Laura Russo Gallery, Portland, OR
2005 Second Annual World Glass Exhibition, William Traver Gallery, Tacoma, WA
“pARTers”, Kirkland Art Center, Kirkland, WA Curated by Deborah Paine
SELECTED COLLECTIONS
New York Public Library, NYC, NY Tacoma Art Museum, Tacoma, WA
Philbrook Museum of Art, Tulsa, OK Ichiro Suzuki, Seattle, WA
Seattle Art Museum Espy Foundation, Oysterville, WA
Oregon Arts Commission Museum of Glass, Tacoma, WA
Harsh Investment, Portland, OR David Kennerly
Metropolitan Arts Commission, Portland, OR Marishka Hargitay
Seattle Arts Commission, Seattle WA Kim Cattrall
Portland Art Museum, Permanent Collection, Portland, OR Cheech Marin
Washington Arts Commission Paul Winfield
MicroSoft Corporation Lance Armstrong
Boise Art Museum Sheryl Crow
Boly/Welch, Portland, OR Phias, Schmidt, Westerdahl, Portland, OR
Claremont Hotel, Oakland, CA Oregon Health Sciences Univ., Portland, OR
Lannan Foundation, Palm Beach, FL Montreal Museum of Art, Montreal, Quebec
Kamm Collection, Los Angeles, CA Schnitzer Museum, University of Oregon
Courtesy Gregory Grenon, for further information please visit www.gregorygrenon.com.
