“Whenever we come up with an idea, we create a universe. A Big Bang in our heads! You can never have doubt even in the midst of a dark period in your life, or in an uncertain part of your creative process.� - Gronk
GRONK Ruins September 6 – October 18, 2014 “People call me a painter but there’s a lot more to it than that. There are other aspects of what I do perhaps that lead to the paintings. That’s what I enjoy the most, the assembling of things, putting bits and pieces together, although I also enjoy taking things apart.” -Gronk Lora Schlesinger is pleased to announce Ruins, Gronk’s first solo exhibition with the gallery. This show features new abstract paintings and works on paper by the artist. The exhibition is on view Saturday, September 6 – October 18, 2014. The opening reception will be held Saturday, September 13 from 5 – 7 pm. Gronk’s Ruins are a union of abstract concepts conceived in preparation for and in response to, his experience painting the sets for Peter Sellars’ adaptation of Henry Purcell’s Opera The Indian Queen. Reminiscent of Mayan codices and modern day graffiti, Gronk’s mark-making conveys the energy of a lost civilization in an ever changing world. Layers of information hover in harmony on each panel. Some elements float in the foreground, while others are negated with dabs of paint recalling the way street paintings are whitewashed on urban walls. With each shape, line, scribble or scratch Gronk is inventing a unique visual language resembling hieroglyphics, calligraphy and pictographs. Red, black, white and rustcolored hues, contrasted with obscure forms create an interplay between a vernacular historically found on walls of caves, and a contemporary visual language that is a record of the artist’s life. Gronk is an award-winning set designer, muralist, performance artist, painter and printmaker, living in Downtown Los Angeles. His paintings are a collection of his observations that actively reflect the noise and movement of a growing city. The whirling shapes and gestural marks echo his affinity for German Expressionism. His work has consistently incorporated elements of film, music and performance art. Given the performance aspect of much of his work, there is a sense of impermanence in his oeuvre that mirrors a moving film. He documents memories and transitory cultures in an invented alphabet scribbled with paint. Gronk was a founding member of ASCO, a multi-media arts collective in the 1970s. He has designed sets for organizations such as the Los Angeles Opera, Santa Fe Opera, Theatro Real in Madrid Spain and Perm Opera House & Ballet Theatre in Perm, Russia. He has exhibited nationally and internationally. In 2011 Los Angeles County Museum of Art held an ASCO retrospective that traveled to Williams College Museum of Art in Massachusetts and to Mexico City. He had a solo exhibition at LACMA in 1994, and has been included in exhibitions at The Fowler Museum, Museum of Contemporary Art Los Angeles, Museo Universitario de Arte Contemporáneo in Mexico City, The Smithsonian Museum of Art in D. C., and The Pompidou in Paris France. GALLERY HOURS: Tuesday – Friday, 10 –5:30 pm, Saturdays 11 – 5:30 pm OPENING RECEPTION: Saturday, September 13, 2014, 5-7PM ARTIST TALK: Saturday, September 13, 2014, 4:30 PMCONTACT: Lora Schlesinger or Stephanie Mercado
Peter Sellars, The Indian Queen, composed by Henry Purcell 1695, Perm Opera House, Perm , Russia
Punctuation Marks, 2014 mixed media 48 x 96�
Pyramid 1, 2013 mixed media 19-7/8 x 15-7/8�
Pyramid 2, 2013 mixed media 19-7/8 x 15-15/16"
Pyramid 3, 2013 mixed media 19-15/16 x 15-15/16"
Pyramid 4, 2013 mixed media 19-7/8 x 15-15/16"
Untitled (GN14-001), 2014 monoprint 24-1/16 x 29-1/4" - fr.
Pyramid 5, 2013 mixed media 14 x 10-15/16"
Untitled (GN14-003), 2014 monoprint
24-1/16 x 29-1/4" - fr.
Untitled (GN14-002), 2014 monoprint 24-1/16 x 29-1/4" - fr.
Untitled (GN14-006), 2014 Monoprint 24-1/16 x 29-1/4" - fr.
Untitled (GN14-007), 2014 monoprint 24-1/16 x 29-1/4" - fr.
Untitled (GN14-004), 2014 monoprint 24-1/16 x 29-1/4" - fr.
Untitled (GN14-008), 2014 monoprint 24-1/16 x 29-1/4" - fr.
Mayan House 1, 2013 mixed media 13-7/8 x 10-15/16"
Mayan House 2, 2013 mixed media 13-7/8 x 10-15/16"
Pyramid 6, 2013 mixed media 14 x 10-15/16"
Pyramid 7, 2013 mixed media 13-15/16 x 10-15/16"
Pyramid 8, 2013 mixed media 13-15/16 x 10-15/16"
Pyramid 9, 2013 mixed media 13-15/16 x 10-15/16"
Pyramid 10, 2013 mixed media 13-15/16 x 10-15/16"
Pyramid 11, 2013 mixed media 12 x 12�
GRONK EDUCATION BFA, East Los Angeles College, 1975 MFA, California State University, Los Angeles AWARDS 2002 Artist in Residence, University of New Mexico, Albuquerque 1996 Artist in Residence, Villa Montalvo, Saratoga, CA 1993 Artist in Residence, Tandem Press, University of Wisconsin, Madison Artist in Residence, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY 1983 Visual Artist Fellowship, National Endowment for the Arts 1977 Artist of the Year, Mexican-American Fine Art Association, Los Angeles, CA MUSEUM COLLECTIONS Denver Art Museum, Denver, CO Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles, CA El Paso museum of Art, El Paso, TX Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington, DC The Mexican Museum, San Francisco, CA University of Texas, El Paso, TX San Jose Museum of Art, San Jose, CA Carnegie Art Museum, Oxnard, CA National Hispanic Cultural Center, Albuquerque, NM Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Los Angeles, CA SELECTED SOLO EXHIBITIONS 2014 RUINS, Lora Schlesinger Gallery, Santa Monica, CA ASCO and Friends: Exiled Portraits, Triangle Marseille, France Trans Angeles, Wilhelm Morgner Haus Kunstmuseum, Gronk 2013 ASCO, Nottingham Contemporary, United Kingdom ASCO, De Appel, Amsterdam, NL ASCO, Museo Universitario de Arte Contemporaneo, Mexico City, MX 2011 Under the Black Sun, Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles, CA ASCO, Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Los Angeles, CA 2010 Live Mural, Fowler Museum, Los Angeles, CA 2009 Mondo Gronk, Dark Room Gallery, Los Angeles, CA 2006 Gronk: The Ainadamar Opera Paintings, Patricia Correia Gallery, Santa Monica, CA. 2005 Gronk’s BrainFlames, digital animation, produced in collaboration with Hue Walker, Steven La Ponsie, and the Digital Pueblo Project at the University of New Mexico, Albuquerque. Exhibited at DomeFest, Digital Dome, Lodesta Astronomy Center, Albuquerque, NM; Museum of Contemporary Art; Denver’s Film Binennial BLOW OUT 2005, Starz Film Center, Denver, CO; SIGGRAPH 2005 Animation Festival,
Los Angeles, CA. Chinatown is Near, L2kontemporary Gallery, Los Angeles Chinatown, CA. Urban Narrative: Works by Gronk, Gallery 727, Los Angeles, CA. Ainadarma: Gronk’s Design for the Opera, National Hispanic Cultural Center, Albuquerque, NM. 2004 Gronk Return: A Site Specific Paintings, Carnegie Art Museum, Oxnard, CA. 2003 Codex: Gronk, A Pictorial Manuscript, Price-Dewey Galleries, Santa Fe, NM. Gronk’s Tormenta – A Method, Carnegie Art Museum, Oxnard, CA. 2002 The Glass Kingdom, installation, Museum of Glass: International Center for Contemporary Art, Tacoma, WA. 1998- Gronk x 3: Murals, Prints, Projects, San Jose Museum of Art, San Jose, CA. 99 1998 The Act of Painting: Gronk!, installation and performance, Memorial Art Gallery, University of Rochester, Rochester, NY. 1997 Gronk, Fine Arts Gallery, California State University, Los Angeles. 1995 Ironweave, installation, Elvehjem Museum of Art, University of Wisconsin, Madison Gronk: Past & Present, CU Art Museum, University of Colorado, Boulder. 1994 Gronk in the Galleries, San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, San Francisco, CA. 1993 ¡Gronk!, A Living Surve, 1973-1993, The Mexican Museum, San Francisco, CA. Traveled to the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Los Angeles, CA; Tucson Museum of Art, Tucson, AZ; El Paso Museum of Art, El Paso, TX. 1992 Hotel Tormenta, Gallerie Claude Samuel, Paris, France. Fascinating Slippers/Pantunflas Fascinantes, San Jose Museum of Art, San Jose, CA; Daniel Saxon Gallery, Los Angeles, CA. 1991 50 Drawings, Daniel Saxon Gallery, Los Angeles, CA. 1990 Hotel Zombie, Laguna Art Museum Satellite, Costa Mesa, CA. Hotel Senator, Daniel Saxon Gallery, Los Angeles, CA. Coming Home Again, Vincent Price Gallery, East Los Angeles College, Los Angeles, CA. 1989 Grand Hotel, Saxon-Lee Gallery, Los Angeles, CA. Gronk: Paintings, Ianneti_Lanzone Gallery, San Francisco, CA. King Zombie, Deson-Saunders Gallery, Chicago, IL; William Traver Gallery, Seattle, WA (1990). 1988 She’s Back, Saxon-Lee Gallery, Los Angeles, CA. 1987 Bone of Contention, Saxon-Lee Gallery, Los Angeles, CA. 1986 The Rescue Party, Saxon-Lee Gallery, Los Angeles, CA. 1985 The Titanic and Other Tragedies at Sea, Galeria Ocaso, Los Angeles, CA. 1984 Gronk, Molly Barnes Gallery, Los Angeles, CA. SELECTED PERFORMANCES 1999 Y2 Gronk, Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles, CA 1997 Tormenta Cantata, composed by Joseph Julian Gonzalez for string quartet, soprano, and amplified paintbrush. Performed by Gronk, the Kronos Quartet, and Yvonne Regalado at the University of Wisconsin, Madison; Villa Montalvo, Saratoga, CA; University of California, Los Angeles; Theater Artaud, San Francisco, CA. Performed by Gronk, members of the New Mexico Symphony Orchestra, and Rebecca Geneva Biorn at the National Hispanic Cultural Center, Albuquerque, NM (2000).
1987 Ismania by Harry Gamboa Jr., Los Angeles Contemporary Exhibitions, Los Angeles, CA. 1985 Morning Becomes Electricity by Gronk and James Bucalo. Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles, CA. Jetter’s Jinx by Harry Gamboa Jr., directed by Gronk. Los Angeles Theater Center, Los Angeles, CA. Performed in 1986 at the University of California, Irvine and the Saxon-Lee Gallery, Los Angeles, CA. Striptease by Gronk and Adam Leventhal. Los Angeles Contemporary Exhibitions, Los Angeles, CA. 1984 Asco ‘84 by Asco. Armory for the Arts, Santa Fe, NM. Performed in 1985 at the Los Angeles Contemporary Exhibitions, Los Angeles, CA. Orphan of Modernism, radio play by Harry Gamboa Jr. Broadcast in two parts on KPFK-FM, Los Angeles, CA. 1983 Asco ’83. MARS (Movimiento Artístico del Río Salado) Gallery, Phoenix AZ; Sesnon Art Gallery, University of California, Santa Cruz. 1982 Asco ’82. Galería de la Raza, San Francisco, CA. 1980 Gronk/Herrón: Illegal Landscape by Gronk and Willie Herrón, III. Exploratorium Gallery, California State University, Los Angeles. Pinguino by Harry Gamboa Jr., in collaboration with Gronk and Willie Herrón, III, performed by Gronk and Herrón. Videotaped on 3/4-inch color videocassette before Agnès Varda. 1978 No Movie by Asco. Los Angeles Contemporary Exhibitions, Los Angeles, CA. Pseudoturquoisers, written and directed by Harry Gamboa Jr., performed by Gronk. Exploratorium Gallery, California State University, Los Angeles. SET DESIGN 2014 The Indian Queen, music by Henry Purcell, directed by Peter Sellars, Perm Opera House & Ballet Theatre, Perm, Russia 2013 The Indian Queen, music by Henry Purcell, directed by Peter Sellars, Teatro Real, Madrid, Spain 2005 Ainadarma (The Fountain of Tears), music by Osvaldo Golijov, libretto by David Henry Hwang, directed by Peter Sellars. Santa Fe Opera, Santa Fe, NM; traveled to the Lincoln Center, New York, NY (2006). 1998 Tormenta Cantata, composed by Joseph Julian Gonzalez for string quartet, soprano, and amplified paintbrush. Performed by Gronk, the Kronos Quartet, and Yvonne Regalado at the University of Wisconsin, Madison; Villa Montalvo, Saratoga, CA; University of California, Los Angeles; Theater Artaud, San Francisco, CA. Performed by Gronk, members of the New Mexico Symphony Orchestra, and Rebecca Geneva Biorn at the National Hispanic Cultural Center, Albuquerque, NM (2000). 1987 Ismania by Harry Gamboa Jr., Los Angeles Contemporary Exhibitions, Los Angeles, CA. 1985 Morning Becomes Electricity by Gronk and James Bucalo. Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles, CA. Jetter’s Jinx by Harry Gamboa Jr., directed by Gronk. Los Angeles Theater Center, Los Angeles, CA. Performed in 1986 at the University of California, Irvine and the Saxon-Lee Gallery, Los Angeles, CA.
Striptease by Gronk and Adam Leventhal. Los Angeles Contemporary Exhibitions, Los Angeles, CA. 1984 Asco ‘84 by Asco. Armory for the Arts, Santa Fe, NM. Performed in 1985 at the Los Angeles ContemporaryExhibitions, Los Angeles, CA. Orphan of Modernism, radio play by Harry Gamboa Jr. Broadcast in two parts on KPFK-FM, Los Angeles, CA. 1983 Asco ’83. MARS (Movimiento Artístico del Río Salado) Gallery, Phoenix AZ; Season Art Gallery, University of California, Santa Cruz. 1982 Asco ’82. Galería de la Raza, San Francisco, CA. 1980 Gronk/Herrón: Illegal Landscape by Gronk and Willie Herrón, III. Exploratorium Gallery, California State University, Los Angeles. Pinguino by Harry Gamboa Jr., in collaboration with Gronk and Willie Herrón, III, performed by Gronk and Herrón. Videotaped on 3/4-inch color videocassette before Agnès Varda. 1978 No Movie by Asco. Los Angeles Contemporary Exhibitions, Los Angeles, CA. Pseudoturquoisers, written and directed by Harry Gamboa Jr., performed by Gronk. Exploratorium Gallery,California State University, Los Angeles.