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October Issue
2008
Greenville County Museum of Art in
Greenville, SC, Features Works by Gary Grier
Greenville County Museum of Art in Greenville, SC, will feature works by Gary Grier from Oct. 25 through Jan. 4, 2009. The show will feature new large-scale work, selected paintings from Carolina Galleries in Charleston, SC, along with the works, High Noon and Cracker Jack, purchased by the museum for its prestigious permanent collection of Southern art. The two works are a pair of large 48 x 72 inch paintings, and were painted to represent or depict South Carolina from Charleston to Greenville.
Grier is originally from Jacksonville, FL. After graduating from high school, he studied at the Savannah Branch of the School of Visual Arts. In the fall of 1998, Grier went to New York City and earned a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree. He studied with Steven Asseal and Anthony Palliser, and also did commission painting. His first commission was a portrait for Sean "P-Diddy" Combs and he also worked for over a year as an art assistant in the studio of pop artist Jeff Koons.
What Grier tries to convey through his paintings is feeling and emotion, with a sense of spirituality and pure honesty. His images are derived from personal experiences, capturing the essence of Southern life as seen through his eyes. By bringing a drama to everyday, ordinary people and the normally overlooked, Grier keeps in line with the spirit of 19th century painters such as Edgar Degas and Gustave Courbet.
Grier was the 2007 recipient of a $5,000 award from the Coastal Community Foundation through their Griffith Visual Arts Fund. He was their designee as Lowcountry Artist of the Year. Additionally, he was included in the Winter edition of Art & Antiques' Collectors Sourcebook magazine as one of their four Emerging Artists. Grier's work will also be included in a forthcoming book about African-American artists from 1800 to the present.
For further information check our SC Institutional
Gallery listings, call the Museum at 864/271-7570 or (www.greenvillemuseum.org).
Carolina Arts is published monthly by Shoestring Publishing Company, a subsidiary of PSMG, Inc. Copyright© 2008 by PSMG, Inc., which published Charleston Arts from July 1987 - Dec. 1994 and South Carolina Arts from Jan. 1995 - Dec. 1996. It also publishes Carolina Arts Online, Copyright© 2008 by PSMG, Inc. All rights reserved by PSMG, Inc. or by the authors of articles. Reproduction or use without written permission is strictly prohibited. Carolina Arts is available throughout North & South Carolina.