Hail to Gorbachev

#RIP Mikhail Gorbachev- This ad from has a whole new historical meaning after Pizza Hut closed shop in Russia this year following Putin's brutal invasion of Ukraine.

We mourn the passing of Mikhail Gorbachev, a man whose openness changed the course of human history. He never lost faith in the transformative power of engagement and dialogue and his life is a powerful reminder of all that can be achieved when we make those ideals a reality.

— Secretary Antony Blinken (@SecBlinken) August 31, 2022

Madam Wong's

 Gregg Chadwick

Madame Wong's

30"x22"gouache on paper 2021

"Esther Wong had the foresight to seize upon a mythic time in Los Angeles rock history, and her willingness to be open to fresh music that was far removed from her own life experiences helped transform L.A.'s musical landscape. And for that she should be remembered." - Nikki Darling

My gouache on paper painting "Madame Wong's" looks back on Los Angeles music history as New Wave and Punk exploded upon the scene. Esther Wong opened her groundbreaking Chinatown club in 1978. Notable bands that she showcased included Los Lobos, The Knack, The Police, The Motels, The Members, Fishbone, The Go-Go's, X, The Alley Cats, The Bangs, Oingo Boingo, Los Illegals, Candy, Guns N' Roses, Black Flag, Daniel Amos, Fear, Red Hot Chili Peppers, and the Ramones.

Madame Wong's is part of a new series of paintings crafted as magic lenses that combine the past, present, and future of Los Angeles. The clear daylight of Los Angeles brought the movie studios out west. And the neon soaked nocturnal light lured writers into the shadows of L.A. As a 17 year old art student at UCLA, I embraced the flickering cinematic light of Hollywood and the poetic light of night and day in the City of Angels. I am continuously inspired by the diversity, history, and beauty of greater Los Angeles.

Available at Saatchi Art and Singulart.

Please Note: This artwork is painted on a 30"x22" sheet of paper and the image size is 18"x12" so a nice clean border surrounds the image.

Original Created:2021

Subjects:Music

Materials:Paper

Styles:Art Deco Figurative Fine Art Impressionism Modern

Mediums:Gouache Monotype

Rescue Our Votes

#RescueOurVotes https://t.co/kfUCTtZkWY

— Gregg Chadwick (@greggchadwick) August 14, 2020

Harriet Tubman was a Nurse

Harriet Tubman's lifelong commitment to human rights exemplifies what it means to be a nurse. ❤️

Because #nurses vow to advocate for our patients, we know that it is literally our JOB to fight for a world that values their health and safety. pic.twitter.com/0uW9vrS5cw

— Bonnie Castillo (@NNUBonnie) August 2, 2020

Heraclitus Weeps!

Philosopher Heraclitus, weeping at the state of the world. Know just how he feels! Painted in 1609 (though totally relevant today) by Abraham Janssens, whose day is today. pic.twitter.com/J3u6yBblZH

— Peter Paul Rubens (@PP_Rubens) July 26, 2020

History is a Weapon - Alison Saar's "Grow'd"

by Gregg Chadwick

“I spect I grow’d. Don’t think nobody ever made me.” 

- Topsy from Harriet Beecher Stowe’s Uncle Tom’s Cabin

Alison Saar's Grow’d sits majestically in L.A. Louver’s open-air Skyroom. Last night, I was privileged to chat with Ms. Saar about her life and work in front of her haunting bronze sculpture. Saar has reimagined Topsy as a strong, fully aware woman. The cotton bale that she sits on has become a throne. And the sickle in her hand has become a harbinger of justice to come. Cotton stalks tied to her hair float like a firmament of earthly stars. 

Alison Saar
Grow'd
2019 / cast bronze / 78 1/2 x 39 x 38 3/4 in. (199.4 x 99.1 x 98.4 cm)
L.A. Louver - June 5, 2019
(photo by Gregg Chadwick)

In 2017-18, Saar created a body of artwork featured in a 2018 solo show at L.A. Louver centered around the character of Topsy. Saar's exhibition entitled Topsy Turvy dove headfirst into the legacy of slavery in America. Douglas Messerli wrote, " Topsy becomes a black heroine threatening patriarchal ideas and seriously challenging male privilege—in short setting the world, as the show’s title suggests, Topsy Turvy." 

Saar said to us last night at L.A. Louver that she considers Topsy Turvy an angry show. 
I replied - echoing Spike Lee's 1619 hat - "400 years of built up anger." In 1619 the first enslaved people stolen from Africa were brought to colonial Virginia. Saar's artwork digs into this painful American origin story and brings to light the literal skeletons buried in our soil. For Saar, her artwork summons the collected rage and frustration of our current time. Saar references poet and activist Audre Lorde: 

“For the master’s tools will never dismantle the master’s house. They may allow us to temporarily beat him at his own game, but they will never enable us to bring about genuine change. Racism and homophobia are real conditions of all our lives in this place and time… I urge each one of us here to reach down into that deep place of knowledge inside herself and touch that terror and loathing of any difference that lives here. See whose face it wears. Then the personal as the political can begin to illuminate all our choices.”

Spike Lee

1619

Saar said that she sees her latest sculpture Grow'd as a hopeful artwork that takes Topsy to a new place. The naïve enslaved girl has grown into a regal presence. She is now in control of her own destiny. Looking at Grow'd I am reminded of Tomi Adeyemi's recent novel Children of Blood and Bone. Shammara Lawrence in Teen Vogue describes Adeyemi's book as a "tale of triumph, that chronicles the journey of Zélie Adebola, a powerful young woman fighting to return magic to her people in the land of Orïsha after it was eradicated by a ruthless king, hell-bent on wiping them out completely." Both Zélie and Topsy fight back against injustice.  

Alison Saar
Grow'd
2019 / cast bronze / 78 1/2 x 39 x 38 3/4 in. (199.4 x 99.1 x 98.4 cm)
L.A. Louver - June 5, 2019
(photo by Gregg Chadwick)

Saar in her artwork takes back forms and stories from African art that were appropriated by Picasso and his circle as they attempted to find a new path but remained trapped in their colonial history. In 2016, Saar's solo exhibit at L.A. Louver Silt, Soot and Smut struck a deep chord with art writer Christopher Knight. He wrote Saar "reminds us that European Modern art in the early 20th century is unthinkable without its profound, complex relationship to Africa. She brings artistic diaspora into play." 

I agree with Christopher Knight that "Saar has been making exceptional work for quite some time. A full museum retrospective is overdue."

Alison Saar's Grow'd is on exhibit at L.A. Louver through June 8, 2019.

L.A. Louver

45 North Venice Boulevard

Venice, California 90291

T: 310.822.4955

F: 310.821.7529

info@lalouver.com

Alison Saar
L.A. Louver - June 5, 2019
(photo by Gregg Chadwick)

Between Worlds (Chicago)

by Gregg Chadwick

Gregg Chadwick
Between Worlds (Chicago)
24"x24" oil on linen 2018

Sneak peek at new artwork to be featured at The Other Art Fair in Chicago - 

My oil on linen painting Between Worlds (Chicago) was inspired by the industrial design of Raymond Loewy and the spirit of adventure that lies at the heart of the United States. 

Two vehicles designed by Loewy stand side by side in a rail yard with the Chicago skyline behind. Glistening in black, the streamlined Pennsylvania Railroad “Broadway Limited” shares the scene with a gold 1938 Studebaker President.

He Called Her "Lightning"

Gregg Chadwick

Lightning (Edith Desch)

36"x 24" oil on linen 2018

Jersey Memories - Grandma Desch

by Gregg Chadwick

When I was little and my dad was off in Vietnam during the war, we lived in a small, rented carriage house behind a big estate. On the way to school each morning we would walk by the train platform full of commuters waiting for their ride into the city. I knew my Grandpa Desch drove trains and I often wondered as we passed over the tracks on the bridge on Ridgewood Avenue whether he was in one of the engines down below. It's only thirty minutes by train from Glen Ridge, New Jersey, to Penn Station in Manhattan. Yet, there seemed to be a world of difference between my town with its quiet gas-lamp lit streets and the bustling avenues in New York City. The train was the artery between those two worlds and I never forgot it. 

The kitchen in Garwood was where Grandma Desch would spread her warmth. 

In a similar fashion, the quiet evenings at the house where my dad's parents lived in Montclair were a world away from my mom's parents' boisterous home in Garwood. Being one of eleven children, my mom was thrown into a swirl of hugs, greetings, questions, and desires the minute we walked through the door of the Desch home. Small in size, but full of warmth, my grandparents' house was a neighborhood gathering place. A black and white TV was usually on in the living room with a ballgame playing or often on weekend afternoons a pulpy science fiction film. Grandpa would often hold court here on his days off from the railroad. I remember Grandpa mussing up my hair when we arrived in a warm hearted gesture that implied get comfortable and join the fun. I was considered shy as a kid in this environment, and with my Southern California accent, I wasn't quite a true Jersey kid either.  If the living room was Grandpa's domain, the kitchen in Garwood was where Grandma Desch would spread her warmth. Usually wearing an apron, Grandma's world extended from the stove, to the sink, to the screen door leading out to the second story porch. Her meals were hearty and reflecting our Irish/German roots ranged from corned beef and cabbage to sauerkraut and sausages. My favorite breakfast at her house was a plate of browned potatoes fried up in her cast iron pan. 

"What's your exit?"

I remember Grandma giggling one morning when I spread mustard on my bread instead of butter because of a billboard I saw along the New Jersey Turnpike that depicted buttered bread with such a mustardy yellow that I thought it had to be a French's condiment ad. The New Jersey Turnpike and the Garden State Parkway run the length of the state and at first meeting folks from Jersey often ask,"What's your exit?" Grandma and Grandpa Desch lived off of Exit 136 in Garwood, New Jersey. When we drove there from Exit 148 in Glen Ridge we would often detour through Irvington to grab an Italian hotdog or sausage at Jimmy Buff's. 

Gregg Chadwick
Jersey Rain (Jimmy Buff's)

30"x 40" oil on linen 2016

There are a few classic New Jersey staples: pork roll sandwiches such as Taylor Ham, saltwater taffy at the Jersey shore, and Italian hot dogs at roadside restaurants up and down the state. But, it is the smell of Taylor Ham cooking on a griddle that always brings me back to Grandma's kitchen.

An accumulation of memories

After painting my grandfather in Jersey Central Engineer (Arthur Desch), I was asked by my Uncle Jake to paint a companion piece of Grandma Edith Desch. His wish to honor both of his parents with my paintings of them was of great interest to me. In artworks such as these two portraits, venturing back into my childhood memories is an essential part in crafting a painting. Sadly, my grandmother passed away in 1976 and time has faded even the photographs we have of her. I would have to dig deep and remember the woman that my grandfather nicknamed Lightning. Hearing my extended family's stories of their times with the Desch clan helped me settle upon an idea for my portrait of Grandma Desch. She needed to be in her kitchen and she would need to have a warmth of spirit. Her painting would be built from an accumulation of memories. 

Gregg Chadwick (center), his brother Kent Chadwick,  and a group of Desch cousins in Garwood, New Jersey  Gregg Chadwick Jersey Cantos 16"x 20" oil on linen 2016

In the Studio

In the studio! #art #inspiration

A post shared by Gregg Chadwick (@greggchadwick) on Mar 2, 2017 at 10:37am PST

Thanks for a great opening at Saatchi Art!

Trento Night (Una Notte a Trento) 24"x18" oil on linen 2016 Currently on view at Saatchi Art until June 1, 2017 #art #saatchiart #italy #trento #glamour

A post shared by Gregg Chadwick (@greggchadwick) on Feb 20, 2017 at 9:12pm PST

Thank you to everyone at Saatchi Art for a marvelous opening on Thursday night and for everyone who braved the oncoming storm to get out and visit the show.

Gregg Chadwick's painting Trento Night
at the Mark-Making Opening at Saatchi Art in Santa Monica, February 16, 2017 

Thank You President Obama

by Gregg Chadwick

Gregg Chadwick
"A Walk With Obama: January 20, 2017"
18"x24" oil on linen 2017
#art #POTUS #beauty #change #hope

Rain covers the Los Angeles basin this morning as President Obama leaves office. I want to take a moment to thank you, Barack Obama, for 8 years of hard work and commitment to affordable health care for all, LGBTQ equality, transgender rights, environmental protections, and so much more. Today and tomorrow and forever, I honor Barack Obama who led this country with wisdom, dignity, and compassion. 

An Elegy for Lou Reed

by Gregg Chadwick

I wrote this when I heard of Lou Reed's death in 2013. Three years on the thoughts still stand. Reposted as an elegy to an inspirational figure for so many. 

"Lou Reed gave us the street and the landscape - and we peopled it."
 - David Bowie in the documentary "Rock 'n' Roll Heart - Lou Reed"

Well hey, man, that's just a lie
It's a lie she tells her friends
'Cause the real song, the real song
Where she won't even admit to herself
The beatin' in her heart
It's a song lots of people know
It's a painful song
A little sad truth
But life's full of sad songs
Penny for a wish
But wishin' won't make you a soldier.
With a pretty kiss for a pretty face
Can't have it's way

Y'know tramps like us, we were born to pay
 - From the beginning of the "Slipaway" section of Lou Reed's song Street Hassle.
    Uncredited spoken vocals by Bruce Springsteen.

Annie Leibovitz
Lou Reed and Laurie Anderson 
Coney Island, New York, 1995
Silver Print

When I found out about Lou Reed's death yesterday morning from Rolling Stone's twitter feed I turned to my Lou Reed playlist and put Reed's cover of Blind Lemon Jefferson's haunting blues number - See That My Grave is Kept Clean along with Antony and the Johnsons' song with Lou Reed - Fistful of Love, and Reed's elegiac urban hymn Berlin, on repeat. 

For many of us who came of age and under the influence of the New York City of the 1970's and 1980's, Lou Reed was New York. While at NYU working on my grad degree in art, Reed's music provided an aural map for my explorations across the city. Reed's staccato talk/singing proved to be a gruff yet tender guided tour through my artistic and lovelorn ventures. Often while on the A train, Marty Fogel's Junior Walker fueled sax riff on Reed's Shooting Star would blare in my walkman's headphones. And Walk on the Wild Side always seemed to accompany me across Washington Square. 

Gregg Chadwick
Ghosts of New Amsterdam
24"x36" oil on linen 2013

Reed's urban suite New York kept me close to the city I loved even as I moved west to California. On a trip back to Manhattan a few years later, a friend who had opened a restaurant in the Village told me that she thought that she had been given a sign that she would make it, because Lou Reed was becoming a regular at her joint. 

Not long after, Reed and his song Why Can't I be Good rumbled across the screen in Wim Wenders' cinematic sequel to Wings of Desire - Far Away So Close. Lou Reed's future wife, performance artist, composer and musician Laurie Anderson, also provided powerful music for the film. On a recent artistic excursion to Berlin, memories of these two films and Reed's album Berlin brought to light elements of the city that I had missed in the past. 



 


Much like an author will write about an event or a place to learn what they feel, I will create a series of artworks to understand what I have seen. I pushed my interaction with Berlin into a recent ongoing series of monotypes fueled partly by the visions of Lou Reed, Wim Wenders, Bertolt Brecht, and David Bowie, 

Gregg Chadwick
Brecht's Song
30"x22" monotype on paper 2011

As Gavin Edwards wrote in Rolling Stone,"While many musicians have made Berlin albums, Lou Reed's Berlin (1973) is the wrist-slashing standard against which they're all judged. When the record concluded with the epic ballad Sad Song, it felt like the whole world was shutting down." Berlin forces us to wrestle with the dead as we walk through its haunted and enchanted streets. After the fall of the wall, Berlin has come to embody the future while at the same time carrying the scars of the past. In the city of Berlin, the political and the personal merge, as evidenced in Lou Reed's Berlin album and David Bowie's recent song Where Are We Now?. In Berlin we are left with existential questions and are reminded that bodies age and die, marriages end, friendships dissolve and memories fade. 

Gregg Chadwick
Rauch Licht (Smoke Light)
30"x22" monotype on paper 2011

During the last years of his life, Lou Reed continued to work with and inspire younger musicians and artists. One of the most fruitful of these mentorship/collaborations was his work with Antony, of Antony and the Johnsons. John Hodgman in the New York Times recounts how the cover image of Antony's EP, I Fell in Love With a Dead Boy "caught the attention of the producer Hal Willner, who bought the EP and played it for Lou Reed, with whom he was working at the time:

'I said, 'Who is that?' Reed recalled. 'So we set out to find him, and he was a few blocks away as it turns out.' ''

Lou Reed invited Antony to tour with him throughout 2003, and every night Antony would sing Candy Says, Reed's haunting tribute to Candy Darling. Caught in the video below, Lou Reed, one of the most influential musicians of the rock era, looks across towards Antony with an expression of pride and wonder. Lou seems mesmerized by what he described as Antony's double tracking and unusual harmonies. Reed had said that he could listen to Antony sing all day. In this video we witness a legend passing on his wisdom and inspiration to another.



Antony and Lou Reed Perform Candy Says



More Videos Below:


Lou Reed & David Bowie Discuss Reed's Album Transformer
 in the documentary "Rock 'n' Roll Heart - Lou Reed"

In an interview with Rolling Stone in 1989, Lou Reed explained that he and Bruce Springsteen were both recording albums at the Record Plant in New York City when an engineer suggested inviting Bruce over to record the "Slipaway" vocals on Reed's song Street Hassle. The last line was Reed's, written with Springsteen's Born to Run in mind:

Y'know tramps like us, we were born to pay


More at:
Lou Reed: The Rolling Stone Interview
Antony Finds His Voice

  
Lou Reed greets Chuck Close in front of Close's 2012 tapestry Lou 

    published by Magnolia Editions; photo by Amanda Gordon/Bloomberg

August 2013

Tonight! Art & Home: An Evening with LA Family Housing - October 26, 2016 7-9pm

Tonight!

My painting “Blush Response" will be available at

Art & Home: 

An Evening with Los Angeles Family Housing to benefit LA Family Housing.

Wednesday, October 26, 2016  7-9pm

    

Room & Board 

Helm's Bakery Building 

8707 Washington Boulevard, CA 90232

Gregg Chadwick

Blush Response

10"x10" oil on canvas 2015

In collaboration with Angeleno magazine, please join us for a special art show at Room & Board in Culver City. 

Over 100 local, contemporary artists have donated artworks in support of LA Family Housing. (LAFH). 

Dedicated to helping families and individuals transition out of homelessness and poverty, LAFH offers a range of housing opportunities enriched with supportive services.

Artwork on display in the showroom will be available for purchase for $400! 

If you have always wanted a Chadwick, this is a wonderful opportunity to get an artwork at an affordable price and to support an important cause.

Please RSVP at http://www.roomandboard.com//events/LAFH 

More at:

https://www.facebook.com/events/1094088290638897/

https://www.facebook.com/lafhonline

Off to Memphis!

by Gregg Chadwick

Gregg Chadwick

Elvis Presley (Suspicion)

36”x36” oil on linen 2016

In the Exhibition:
One in a Million 

L Ross Gallery

August 2 - 27, 2016

Reception 6 to 9 p.m. Friday, August 5, 2016. 

5040 Sanderlin, Suite 104, Memphis, Tennessee 38117

901-767-2200  

Venice Art Walk and Auctions Today - May 22, 2016

Gregg Chadwick

City of Angels

17”x17” oil on linen 2014

Benefit Auction for Venice Family Clinic

Today's the day! #VeniceArtWalk 2016 at Google Los Angeles 340 Main Street Venice, CA 90291 Noon-6pm #MyDayInLA