DVAA Member since 2013
Gary Grissom
Website:
About:
Gary Grissom studied art and the history of art at Community College of Philadelphia. Philadelphia College of Art (University of the Arts) and the University of Pennsylvania. During the 1970s he was a founding member of the Bricolage art collective and Wilma Theater writing, directing and designing performances.
Gary was fortunate to receive a 1990 Pennsylvania Council on the Arts Visual Arts Fellowship. He has received awards including the Abington Art Center’s Annual Juried Photography Exhibition 2014 Director’s award. Cerulean Arts 9th Annual Juried Exhibition best in show award. DaVinci Art Alliance’s Open Lens II 2016 first place award. The Philadelphia Sketch Club’s PHOTOgraphy 2017 second place award, Art of the Flower 2020 first place award and Works on Paper 2020 first place award. Main Line Art Center’s Work on Paper 1994 Exhibition Wohl award. The William Penn Charter School Juried Art Exhibition 1992 first place award.
For the last 40 years Gary has exhibited painting and photography at galleries, art centers, universities and museums including: Abington Art Center, Art Association of Harrisburg, Art in City Hall (Philadelphia), Laurie W. and Irvin J. Borowsky Gallery at the YMHA, Bruce Gallery of Edinboro University of Pennsylvania, Cerulean Arts, Cheltenham Center for the Arts, Annual Painting Exhibition, Community College of Philadelphia, Convergence Gallery, Da Vinci Art Alliance, Deming Center for the Arts (Deming, NM), Everhart Museum, InLiquad Gallery, Johnston Art Museum, National Liberty Museum, Old City Arts, Painted Bride Art Center, Pentimenti Gallery, Philadelphia Photo Arts Center, The Philadelphia Sketch Club, The State Museum of Pennsylvania, University of the Arts, University Art Gallery of the University of Pittsburgh, and the Wayne Art Center.
Artist Statement:
During the 1970s I painted large paintings of grid structures built from subtle color variations. My art has evolved to depicting representational images. I have continued to maintain a maximalist obsession with patterning, surface detail and color variation. Currently my painting, drawing and photography is a response to what I see. There are biographical references, the inclusion of family members as painting subjects and biological structures from the found landscape environment near my Philadelphia residence. My hope is that these images are seen as from the tradition to render what the artist Faith Ringgold called, “painting the world as it really is.”
Exhibitions at DVAA:
