2022

 

by Gregg Chadwick

Happy Year of the Tiger! Good News and New Art  from Gregg Chadwick

Gregg Chadwick Steps of Time 30" x 24" oil on linen 2020 Featured in Seeds of Optimism  "Manifest a happy and bright new year with a joyous artwork  by one of our top artists from around the globe."                    Bethany Fincher - Assistant Curator at Saatchi Art    As 2022 begins, I am honored that Saatchi Art included an artwork  of mine in their Seeds of Optimism collection. In my new  interview with Art Squat Magazine, I discuss my Saffron Road series: "Twenty years ago in Thailand, I woke up at dawn and spent  the morning quietly and carefully observing the saffron robed monks  on their morning pilgrimages. On my return to the U.S. later that week,  I began to paint Buddhist monks, privately at first - as a form of meditation.  Only later did I grasp the dharmic sense of responsibility inherent in this new  body of work. I needed to paint these paintings. And I found that  the audience I had developed over the years felt the need to see them also . They have given me their trust that I will create paintings that  speak of our times but also provide clues to a future path into the unknown." Collection at https://www.saatchiart.com/.../Seeds.../1376557/638724/view

Gregg Chadwick Frida Cano (E Line) 37" x 24" oil on linen 2021 On exhibit in 𝙒𝙚 𝘼𝙧𝙚… 𝙋𝙤𝙧𝙩𝙧𝙖𝙞𝙩𝙨 𝙤𝙛 𝙈𝙚𝙩𝙧𝙤 𝙍𝙞𝙙𝙚𝙧𝙨 𝙗𝙮 𝙇𝙤𝙘𝙖𝙡 𝘼𝙧𝙩𝙞𝙨𝙩𝙨. Union Station, Los Angeles, California   For the Metro project "We Are…Portraits of Metro Riders by Local Artists", I painted a portrait of artist, writer, and curator Frida Cano.  Like a steel river, Metro’s E Line connects arts institutions across Los Angeles County. Running from 7th Street in Downtown L.A. to Santa Monica, the E train begins just down Bunker Hill from LA MOCA and the Broad Museum and passes by numerous art cultural centers from the California African-American Museum, to the art gallery districts in West Adams and Culver City, to the Sawtelle Corridor, to Bergamot Station, to the 18th Street Arts Center, ending a few miles from the Ocean Park neighborhood in Santa Monica that inspired artists from Richard Diebenkorn to John Baldessari.  Frida Cano lives in Echo Park and often travels on the E Line to her art curatorial position in Santa Monica. Frida lives and breathes the concerns of our times. She writes,” As an emerging Mexican artist and curator, focused on the reevaluation of history and culture through Latin American perspectives, it has been my concern to truly communicate the social issues of our times.” Frida rides the train and sees the world reflected in the glass of the E Line as she travels across L.A. Frida believes that art curators, in tandem with artists and critics, can bring circulating and hidden ideas to light. This zeitgeist informed my portrait of Frida Cano, pictured thinking as she waits for the E train.    Frida Cano Meets Frida Cano at  𝙒𝙚 𝘼𝙧𝙚… 𝙋𝙤𝙧𝙩𝙧𝙖𝙞𝙩𝙨 𝙤𝙛 𝙈𝙚𝙩𝙧𝙤 𝙍𝙞𝙙𝙚𝙧𝙨 𝙗𝙮 𝙇𝙤𝙘𝙖𝙡 𝘼𝙧𝙩𝙞𝙨𝙩𝙨. Union Station, Los Angeles, California We Are...Portraits of Metro Riders by Local Artists is on view in the Union Station Passageway Art Gallery and in an expanded online gallery that celebrates diversity and the community of transit riders. We Are... will launch more upcoming programs in 2022 across multiple formats and sites including buses, trains and stations in Los Angeles County. The program will even include a special Metro Art Bus!  This multi-site exhibition and series of events is presented by Metro Art in collaboration with Metro’s Office of Civil Rights, Racial Equity & Inclusion and Communications departments.

Gregg Chadwick Ocean, Otters, Oil 40" x 40 oil on linen 2021 Featured in Plants and Poetry Journal: Wildlife of the Underworld   On walks along California's Central Coast, I often stop and peer into the swirling mix of seaweed and surf looking for the telltale bob of a sea otter as it breaks to the surface. The tap, tap, tap of otters cracking shells across rocks carried on their chests as they float on their backs in the kelp filled water also gives away their location. Sea otters are voracious eaters, clearing coastal seabeds of purple sea urchins that would otherwise decimate the growing kelp forests.   By keeping the purple urchin population down, sea otters remove kelp's major nemesis. Sea urchins feed on the holdfasts that keep kelp anchored to the bottom of the ocean. Sea otters feed on the purple sea urchins that devour kelp forests. When the sea otter population collapsed after centuries of being hunted for their furs, the entire ecosystem of the Monterey Bay shifted.  The bay's giant kelp forests disappeared and along with it most of the sea life that they supported and protected. Matt Simon in Wired's November 4, 2021 article on sea otters explains that, "Keeping the urchin population in check preserves the kelp, which is vital for the ecosystem in two main ways. First, the forest is a habitat for fish, which are the food source for birds and other marine mammals, like sea lions. Second, the seaweed is part of what scientists call a blue carbon ecosystem, meaning a coastal or marine area that sequesters carbon."    To get even closer to sea otters, I love to visit the Monterey Bay Aquarium and their sea otter information and exhibition space. The Monterey Bay Aquarium describes sea otters as aquatic environmentalists: "By munching on urchins, they help kelp forests flourish, and by crunching on crabs, they promote eelgrass in estuaries. But this marine mammal is endangered — and needs our help." The sea otter population along the Central California Coast has rebounded after being feared extinct early in the 20th Century. But a family of resilient sea otters were found near Bixby Bridge in 1938. Due to strong conservation efforts, California's sea otter population has slowly grown to the current number of around 3,000. A combination of legal protection — in 1977 sea otters became protected under the Endangered Species Act — and the efforts of nongovernmental organizations have prompted the sea otter resurgence. But the sea otter's future is still at great risk. Oil spreading south from a single tanker spill near San Francisco or off the pristine Central Coast would threaten the entire California sea otter population. With the recent oil spill in Southern California off Huntington Beach in October 2021, I was reminded how vulnerable our coastal ecosystem is to oil spills and climate change. Coast Guard officials determined that the spill came from a leak in a pipeline owned by Houston-based Amplify Energy that shuttles crude from offshore platforms to the shore. In response to this latest environmental emergency, I created my painting Ocean, Otters, Oil.  Gregg Chadwick Ocean, Otters, Oil (detail) (Oil Platforms Ellen and Elly Offshore near Long Beach, California) 40"x40"oil on linen 2021   As I painted Ocean, Otters, Oil and other artworks in my Fragile Earth series, I have been listening to the environmentally and socially conscious Australian band Midnight Oil. In 1990 Midnight Oil created a guerilla performance in front of Exxon headquarters in New York City with a banner reading, "Midnight Oil Makes You Dance, Exxon Oil Makes Us Sick," as they played in protest of the Exxon Valdez oil spill.  Midnight Oil has released a new song about our global climate crisis that illuminates the peril in which we find our fragile earth. This new Midnight Oil song Rising Seas has found its way to the top of my studio playlist and inspires me to keep speaking out, to keep creating, to keep caring about the future of our planet. Please visit Plants and Poetry Journal: Wildlife of the Underworld to see my artwork and more inspiring poems, prose, and artworks on our oceans and fragile ecosystem.

New Gregg Chadwick Interview by Laura Siebold in Art Squat (Occupy Art) Magazine   "The Other Art Fair edition at the Barker Hangar in Santa Monica couldn’t have been a better place to give contemporary artist Gregg Chadwick a platform to exhibit his oil on linen paintings, especially as he creates his art in an old airplane hangar, as well. Gregg takes inspiration from important cultural and political figures and turns them into paintings, capturing moments and moods of contemporary America. Gregg’s series are very distinct in character – ranging from strong portraits of human beings, animals in the natural world, over medical portraitures to paintings that are inspired by meditation. A common element of Gregg’s paintings is his use of “internal illumination” to hold the viewer’s attention, his layered “Pentimenti” painting technique, and his tendency to create a glimpse of a path into the unknown future, told by his paintings multifaceted stories. Often, the artist draws ideas from poetry, novels, and music, then incorporating those elements into his paintings. Being renowned for his expressive art, Chadwick has exhibited in various galleries and shows across the U.S. and internationally; his paintings are part of many permanent collections. Gregg Chadwick is based in Los Angeles, California." - Laura Siebold in Art Squat (Occupy Art) Magazine Please visit http://www.art-squat.com/articles3/Gregg_Chadwick/index.php to read the entire interview.

Gregg Chadwick Year of the Tiger (Sumatran Tiger - CJ) 40" x 40 oil on linen 2021   In an auspicious kick off to the new year, Singulart has included  Year of the Tiger (Sumatran Tiger - CJ)  in their new Year of the Tiger collection.  This oil on linen painting is the first in a series of artworks depicting the characters in the Chinese Zodiac using animals in the Los Angeles Zoo as models and inspiration. The model for Year of the Tiger is the Sumatran Tiger named CJ. Sumatran Tigers are severely endangered in the wild and need our help so they do not become extinct. I first became aware of the fragile nature of our planet as an elementary school student. For Christmas one year, I asked my parents for the book “Wildlife in Danger” published by the IUCN (International Union for the Conservation of Nature) They are still an important organization providing information, plans, and hope for our endangered earth. Worried about the environment as a kid, I drew pictures of animals constantly. Now, I am creating paintings that shed light on climate change, the beauty of the natural world, and our place with other species. Year of the Tiger was  first exhibited at The Other Art Fair in Los Angeles at Barker Hangar in September 2021 and continues to uphold the spirit of those born under the tiger's sign as we move into 2022. Gregg Chadwick The Great Sunset (Carmel) 24" x 30 oil on linen 2020 Over the years, I have gravitated to the beach as a place of peace and healing. My parents moved to the Carmel area when I was a student at UCLA so the Central Coast of California will always be a site of family gatherings and homecomings. Going for a run along the beach as the sun goes down fuels me. We are still not traveling much outside of Santa Monica, due to the coronavirus, so I decided to venture out through my paintings. The golden light of late afternoon as it blends with the pink of a Carmel Point sunset appeared through the veil of memory on my canvas. A quiet, poetic moment inspired by my family home and the poetry of Carmel's late, great poet Robinson Jeffers. I wish you peace and prosperity in this new year!    - Gregg Chadwick, January 2022 A visitor viewing work by Gregg Chadwick in the Recovery Justice: Being Well exhibition at 18th Street Arts, Santa Monica, California.  Photo by Geoff Palomino.

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