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PRESS RELEASE
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE |
George Billis Gallery is pleased to present Tom Gregg: FACTS. The exhibition features the artist’s new body of still-life oil paintings and continues through February 16th.
Objects that the artist could hold in his hand or put in a pocket have always had a powerful resonance for Tom Gregg. These things, the artist writes, have “a life of their own in my imagination and in my world. The small toy that my cousin played with when she visited, the hat that my Father wore, the rock I always tripped on in the path to the mailbox, the coffee cup my girlfriend drank from; all these things, these inanimate, mute objects, acquired and then carried in them a force and an energy through their association with the peopled world.”
Objects that the artist could hold in his hand or put in a pocket have always had a powerful resonance for Tom Gregg. These things, the artist writes, have “a life of their own in my imagination and in my world. The small toy that my cousin played with when she visited, the hat that my Father wore, the rock I always tripped on in the path to the mailbox, the coffee cup my girlfriend drank from; all these things, these inanimate, mute objects, acquired and then carried in them a force and an energy through their association with the peopled world.”
To Gregg, these objects have an existence in their own right, their own life in the universe. Their world has a different sense of time, a patience and a calm that is unknown in the world of people. One can put a bowl on the table, and walk out of the room, leave for a day, a month, or a lifetime and when one walks back into that room, the bowl will still be sitting there on the table, dusty perhaps, but unchanged, not so much waiting as simply, and profoundly, existing.
While objects have always played center stage in Gregg’s work, the events of recent years have had a significant influence on which objects the artist gravitates towards. Artists filter the world around them through their medium - Tom Gregg is no exception. In this new series, we see the contemporary thoughts of an artist reacting to the upheaval he sees and feels around him in politics, in economics, in society as a whole.
While objects have always played center stage in Gregg’s work, the events of recent years have had a significant influence on which objects the artist gravitates towards. Artists filter the world around them through their medium - Tom Gregg is no exception. In this new series, we see the contemporary thoughts of an artist reacting to the upheaval he sees and feels around him in politics, in economics, in society as a whole.
The ‘things' in his paintings are there primarily to fulfill the demands of the painting itself, much the way actors are in a play to fulfill the demands of the script. But the paintings are so much more than just still lives - the objects reference moments in the complicated times in which we live. A folded flag, a MAGA hat, a globe with North America upside-down, alone and solitary, as if some human activity has just moved out of the frame and we are left with a stillness, a breath, after the madness.
Tom Gregg received his B.F.A. in Printmaking from the Rhode Island School of Design and his M.F.A. from Yale University School of Art. His work has been featured in many distinguished publications including: American Art Collector, Art & Antiques, The Kansas City Star, and New York Magazine. Gregg lives and works in Kansas City, Missouri.
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Tom Gregg received his B.F.A. in Printmaking from the Rhode Island School of Design and his M.F.A. from Yale University School of Art. His work has been featured in many distinguished publications including: American Art Collector, Art & Antiques, The Kansas City Star, and New York Magazine. Gregg lives and works in Kansas City, Missouri.
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George Billis Gallery opened its second location in the Culver City area of Los Angeles in 2004 and marks its 22nd year in the Chelsea arts district in New York City. George Billis shows work by both emerging and established artists. For more information please contact the gallery at:
2716 S. La Cienega Blvd.
Los Angeles, CA 90034
T: 310-838-3685
F: 310-838-3438
email: [email protected]
www.georgebillis.com
2716 S. La Cienega Blvd.
Los Angeles, CA 90034
T: 310-838-3685
F: 310-838-3438
email: [email protected]
www.georgebillis.com
