Gregg Chadwick: Revenant by Jeffrey Carlson - July 2014

Gregg Chadwick's "Revenant"
Jeffrey Carlson Reporting Editor, Fine Art Today 

Specters from a distant past ‐‐ or perhaps another level of existence ‐‐ people the nostalgic and visionary works of Gregg Chadwick.

Widely recognized for his figure paintings and cityscapes, Gregg Chadwick presents his latest work in an exhibition titled "Revenant," soon to be unveiled at San Francisco's Sandra Lee Gallery. The exhibition opens July 1, and the opening reception will be held July 10, from 5:30‐7:30 p.m.

Gregg Chadwick, "Salish Sea," 2014, oil on linen, 30 x 24 in.
Sandra Lee Gallery

In viewing Chadwick's paintings, it feels as though we are viewing these people and places through a screen of nostalgic vision. In passages the works are blurred and vague, suggesting forms more than representing them. This lack of definition suggests the uncertainty and vagueness of a lost memory or a fleeting dream; we can picture its shape but are often left grasping at its details.

Gregg Chadwick, "Calle," 2014, oil on linen, 24 x 18 in.
Sandra Lee Gallery

Gregg Chadwick, "Revenant," 2014, oil on linen, 24 x 18 in.
Sandra Lee Gallery

Chadwick's process, too, encourages reflection on the simultaneously fleeting and lasting nature of life's experiences. In each painting Chadwick creates a kind of palimpsest, layering transparent pigments and painting over the earlier image. In this way the past is built into the paintings themselves.

Gregg Chadwick, "The Station Agent," 2014, oil on linen, 40 x 40 in.
Sandra Lee Gallery 

Gregg Chadwick, "Deerhead Diner," 2014, oil on linen, 24 x 36 in.
Sandra Lee Gallery  

"Revenant" will remain on display at Sandra Lee Gallery through July 31, where a concurrent exhibition at Sandra Lee Gallery presents paintings by Evri Kwong. To learn more, visit Sandra Lee Gallery online.

This article was featured in Fine Art Today, a weekly e‐newsletter from Fine Art Connoisseur magazine.

Gregg Chadwick, "Mulholland Blue," 2014, oil on linen, 24 x 30 in.
Sandra Lee Gallery

Gregg Chadwick and Painting Time by Jeffrey Carlson - March 2013

Gregg Chadwick and Painting Time

Jeffrey Carlson Reporting Contributing Editor, Fine Art Today

March 2013

In a new solo exhibition, California artist Gregg Chadwick ambitiously explores the boundaries of time and of representational painting. 

Gregg Chadwick, "Grand Central," oil on canvas, 36 x 48 

  

Gregg Chadwick, “Il Poeta di Milano,” oil on canvas, 24 x 18 in.

The Time Between, a show of recent paintings by Gregg Chadwick, is now on view at Sandra Lee Gallery in San Francisco.

In these paintings Chadwick works lightly and suggestively, as if in the haze of a fragmented vision. Some figures are located in recognizable time and space, like three young women who stroll an open road, one texting and another snooping. In other works the subject is far more enigmatic, the spaces indeterminate, and the figures distorted or mirrored.

The conceptual foundation for Chadwick’s recent work comes from a study of time as perceived by the ancient Greeks, who categorized it in two distinct ways. Chronos denoted sequential time, measurable in units, whereas kairos conveyed the significance of a moment and was qualitative in nature. A kairos was indeterminate in length and potentially great in importance, as in “an appointed time.”

Chadwick’s stated intention with his works on time is to “break down the illusions of linear time passing and expose the coexistence of past, present and future.”

Gregg Chadwick, “I Canti (The Cantos),” oil on linen, 80 x 60 in. 

Gregg Chadwick, “The Time Between,” oil on canvas, 24 x 18 in.

The artist’s conceptual vision neatly dovetails with the goals of the broader contemporary realist art movement. Chadwick paints scenes that are representational yet imaginative; they are, at one and the same time, rooted in tangible existence and removed from it. His figures are real and unreal. Engaged in everyday activities or detached from their surroundings, we see them as women and men of the world and as specters of superhuman existence.

Gregg Chadwick, “Three Secrets,” oil on canvas, 30 x 24 in.

Based in Santa Monica, where he paints in an old airplane hangar, Chadwick has shown at galleries and museums nationally and internationally. He earned his BFA from UCLA and his MFA from NYU. Chadwick has held notable solo exhibitions at the Manifesta Maastricht Gallery (Maastricht, Netherlands), AD Space 2000 (Tokyo, Japan), and the Lisa Coscino Gallery (Pacific Grove, California), and he has participated in group shows at the Sandra Lee Gallery, Arena 1 Gallery (Santa Monica, California), and the Arts Club of Washington (Washington, D.C.).

Chadwick writes a blog, Speed of Life, in which he examines art’s intersection with society. He also frequently posts recently completed work to his Flickr account, which can be viewed here.

The Time Between will be on view through March 30, 2013. 

An opening reception will be held the evening of March 7, from 5:30‐7:30 p.m. Sandra Lee Gallery is located at 251 Post Street, Suite 310, in San Francisco.

For more information, visit www.greggchadwick.com and http://sandraleegallery.com. 

This article was featured in Fine Art Today, a new weekly e‐newsletter from Fine Art Connoisseur magazine.

Filed Under :

Locations : California, Milano, Monica, San Francisco, Santa Monica, Tokyo, Washington, D.c. People : Gregg Chadwick, Painting Time

Gregg Chadwick, “Proserpina,” oil on canvas, 48 x 36 in.

Must See Exhibition: Artists Respond to San Francisco’s Black Exodus

by Gregg Chadwick

Currently on display at the Thacher Gallery at USF is the powerful exhibition Hiraeth: The 3.9 Collective Searches for Home. 

Abhi Singh on the KQED Arts page explains the origins of the exhibition:

"San Francisco’s Fillmore district was once a vibrant African American community, known as 'the Harlem of the West.'  But in recent decades the Fillmore — like San Francisco as a whole — has witnessed a startling black exodus.  A group of artists known as the 3.9 Art Collective are responding with work that both reminds us of San Francisco’s more diverse  past and expresses their resistance to present trends. Their name comes from the percentage of African Americans that some predict will remain in the city by the time the next census takes place, in 2020.
 The Welsh word Hiraeth roughly translates to a longing for a far-off home — one that may not even exist or has been changed by time or idealized by memory."

Corie Schwabenland in the San Francisco Foghorn writes:

"The collective started with a discussion between two East Coast-to-SF transplants, says 3.9 co-founder William Rhodes. When Rhodes, originally from Baltimore, and fellow artist Nancy Cato shared their perceptions about San Francisco after living in the city for a respective seven and twenty years, they came to a striking conclusion:

'We really just felt there was a huge disparity when it comes to wealth, and very few variations of African Americans: You see a lot of African Americans that are homeless; you do not see a lot of African Americans living in San Francisco that are middle class or working class,” says Rhodes. 'It became a concern for us, and we decided that, since we’re both artists, to try to figure out a way to talk about these issues through our art and form a collective.'”

The 3.9 Collective’s exhibition, Hiraeth: the 3.9 Collective Searches for Home is a must see exhibition that examines the issues of displacement, gentrification, wealth disparity and racial relations.

The 3.9 Collective’s exhibition, Hiraeth: the 3.9 Collective Searches for Home is on exhibit through April 21, 2015 at the University of San Francisco’s Thacher Gallery and will feature a closing event with Rodney Ewing from 5:30-7:30p.m. on April 21st in the Thacher Gallery. 


For more information, contact jvgabrielle@usfca.edu or visit  http://www.usfca.edu/library/thacher/





Artists in the 3.9 Collective are responding to San Francisco’s dramatic loss of African American citizens with work that both reminds us of the city’s vibrantly diverse past and expresses resistance to present trends.

Please Join Gregg Chadwick for an Artist Talk on Revenant at the Sandra Lee Gallery on July 26, 2014

Please join me this Saturday, July 26, 2014 at the Sandra Lee Gallery in San Francisco as I gather with a small group to discuss my new series "Revenant" - each painting holds a mysterious story where past and present meet. The event runs from 3:30 to 6:00 pm. Also, if you haven't seen it yet, please check out the review by Jeffrey Carlson in Fine Art Connoisseur: "Gregg Chadwick's Revenant" (link here) before my talk.
More details below:

Sneak Peek - Revenant: New Paintings by Gregg Chadwick at Sandra Lee Gallery - July 2014

    

Revenant New Paintings by Gregg Chadwick by Gregg Chadwick | 

New Exhibition for the New Year

Gregg Chadwick
l'Horloge de Baudelaire (Baudelaire's Clock) 
40" x 30" oil on linen 2013
courtesy Sandra Lee Gallery, San Francisco, California

Opening on January 9, 2014, from 5:00-7:30pm, at the Sandra Lee Gallery in San Francisco, California is a new group exhibition which includes my artwork along with work by Kathryn Arnold, Henry Jackson, Irena Kononova, Jeremy Morgan, Jeffrey Palladini, Hyun Su Park, Daniel Phill, George Rivera, Jungsan Senim and others. The exhibition runs until January 31, 2014.

The Sandra Lee Gallery is located at:
 251 Post Street, Suite 310, San Francisco, CA 94108
[t] 415.291.8000
art@sandraleegallery.com

Empire State

 GreggChadwick 
Empire State
72"x36" oil on linen 2013

On View at artMRKT San Francisco
May 16-19, 2013
Sandra Lee Gallery, San Francisco
Booth #221

Memory Making: The First Emperor's Legacy at the Asian Art Museum

by Gregg Chadwick

China's Terracotta Warriors: The First Emperor's Legacy

at the Asian Art Museum in San Francisco 

photo by Gregg Chadwick

 "I, Sovereign, am the First Emperor; my descendants will call themselves the Second Generation, the Third Generation, and will go on forever after." 
- The First Emperor, Qin Shihuang (259-210 BCE) 
   quoted by the historian Sima Qian (145-90 BCE)


China's Terracotta Warriors: The First Emperor's Legacy currently on view at the Asian Art Museum in San Francisco until May 27, 2013 provides tantalizing glimpses of an ancient culture and its rulers' attempts to influence cultural and political memory. Over two thousand years ago, Qin Shihuang - the first emperor of China, began constructing a massive mausoleum to ensure, what Li He, the Asian Museum's associate curator of Chinese art, describes as the personal and political "continuation of the family's ruling position and the long-lasting reign of the dynasty" as well as individual hopes for an afterlife. 

The First Emperor began to plan his eternal place of rest from the moment he ascended the throne. The mausoleum took almost 38 years of hard labor and exquisite craftsmanship to construct. Ongoing archaeological excavations continue to reveal new secrets and hidden cultural treasures created to ensure Qin Shihuang's memory and lineage. Eight human-sized terracotta warriors made the journey to San Francisco. Each figure seems imbued with the ability to speak. Buried in a vast tomb with more than 7,000 comrades, some with horses and chariots, surrounded perhaps by flowing liquid mercury rivers graced by bronze waterbirds and bells, these sculpted warriors were meant to ensure Qin Shihuang's trip through the cosmos and eventual crossing to another realm. According tohistorian Sima Qian (145-90 BCE) the emperor feared that the creators "might disclose all the treasure that was in the tomb...(that) after the burial and sealing up of  the treasures, the middle gate was shut and the outer gate closed to imprison all the artisans and laborers, so that no one came out." The mausoleum was forgotten over the centuries. The tomb was not revealed until the 20th century, when Chinese farmers found fragments of terracotta sculptures as they attempted to assuage the effects of a drought with a new well. 

Armored General

221-206 BCE China

Terracotta

Qin Shihuang Terracotta Warriors and Horses Museum, Shaanxi, China

 Installation at the Asian Art Museum in San Francisco 

photo by Gregg Chadwick

Rulers and politicians of all stripes are often in the business of memory-making. The recent unveiling of the George W. Bush Presidential Library comes to mind. Since President Calvin Coolidge, all American presidents have a stand-alone presidential library that holds their papers and memorabilia. But the G.W. Bush library is unique in that it is a museum that Rachel Maddow convincingly describes as a ridiculous attempt to make the Bush administration's invasion of Iraq seem like a good idea. Watch the Rachel Maddow video linked here and see if you agree that, as she puts it,"The case to invade Iraq was cooked up, a hoax put upon the nation." With this ridiculous attempt at memory-making by the Bush team in mind, I looked at Qin Shihuang's memory-mausoleum differently than I might have otherwise. What message was the First Emperor attempting to send on to future generations with his vast buried army of exquisitely crafted clay warriors?

Emperor Qin Shihuang used force to break up and subsume noble lands as well as compelling the noble families themselves to move to, his new capital, Xianyang. The emperor freed peasants from their feudal bonds, but then forced them into servitude for the state. Arthur Cotterell in his informative work, The Imperial Capitals of China, describes that the emperor's extensive construction and engineering program imposed a tremendous burden and that "this continued use of conscript labor strained the allegiance of the peasantry, especially when it was maintained by the naked force of cruel punishments." Due to this shift in labor allocations, agriculture suffered and famine ensued. Subsequently in 209 (BCE), starving, impoverished peasants staged the first large-scale rebellion in Chinese history. 

Was this sculpted army intended as a symbol to the living as well as the dead? With the rebellions that signaled the coming end of Qin Shihuang's short lived dynasty, it is unlikely that the emperor's memory-making had an initial effect on the Chinese populace. Gish Jen in her marvelous new book, Tiger Writing, quotes Chinese author Lin Yutang from his 1935 work My Country and My People, "that the Chinese are given to a farcical view of life, and that 'Chinese humor... consist[s] in compliance with outward form ... and the total disregard of the substance in actuality.'" 

 China's Terracotta Warriors: The First Emperor's Legacy is an exhibition that provokes cultural and historical critique as well as artistic engagement. Political art is rarely thisexquisite. Don't miss it!

China's Terracotta Warriors: The First Emperor's Legacy includes objects from the Museum of Terracotta Warriors and Horses, the Shaanxi Provincial Institute of Archaeology, and the Shaanxi History Museum.

On Site View of Unrestored Warriors
at the Qin Shihuang Terracotta Warriors and Horses Museum, Shaanxi, China
Courtesy: Qin Shihuang Terracotta Warriors and Horses Museum, Shaanxi, China

More at:

The Imperial Capitals of China by Arthur Cotterell
Terracotta Warriors at the Asian Art Museum  SF Chronicle

Artist Talk at Sandra Lee Gallery on March 23, 2013

The Sandra Lee Gallery is pleased to invite you to an artist talk by Gregg Chadwick on Saturday, March 23rd, 2013 from 4 to 6 pm at the gallery.

Chadwick will discuss the inspiration behind and the themes explored in his compelling artworks. 

The exhibition is garnering great praise and has been reviewed by Fine Art Connoisseur 

see full review at link - http://www.fineartconnoisseur.com/Gregg-Chadwick-and-Painting-Time/15732772 ) 

and mentioned as a show not to miss by 7x7 Magazine 

(link at http://www.7x7.com/arts-culture/four-sf-gallery-shows-see-week )

And Where San Francisco writes:

Sandra Lee Gallery has a new exhibit this month: Gregg Chadwick "The Time Between"--the paintings are simply majestic! #SFArt

Please RSVP to art@sandraleegallery.com to reserve your spot.

The event is Free and open to all interested in the arts.

Sandra Lee Gallery
251 Post Street, Suite 310
San Francisco, CA 94108

tel: 415.291.8000

Specific Fiction (sonoba shōsetsu)

Gregg Chadwick

Specific Fiction (sonoba shōsetsu)

18" x 12" oil on linen 2013

Currently on exhibit in my solo show, The Time Between, at the Sandra Lee Gallery in San Francisco, California.

The Time Between Opens March 5th, 2013 at the Sandra Lee Gallery in San Francisco, California

The Time Between

Paintings by Gregg Chadwick

March 5 - March 30, 2013

Sandra Lee Gallery

251 Post Street, Suite 310

San Francisco, California 94108

www.sandraleegallery.com

415 291-8000

art@sandraleegallery.com

Reception for the artist:

Thursday, March 7, 2013 from 5:30 – 7:30 pm

Catalog Available With Essay by Peter Clothier

The Time Between: Paintings by Gregg Chadwick 

The Painted Word

The Painted Word

Gregg Chadwick
36"x48" oil on linen 2013

“If I read a book and it makes my whole body so cold no fire can warm me I know that is poetry. If I feel physically as if the top of my head were taken off, I know that is poetry. These are the only way I know it. Is there any other way?”
- Emily Dickinson

Tomorrow and Thursday in Nor Cal: The Painted Word Book Tour

I am honored to announce the publication of my latest collaboration with the author Phil Cousineau: The Painted Word. 

Sixty-three of my artworks are included in this new volume. 

Book Tour Dates - All Are Welcome & All Events are Free. I will bring a group of the artworks included in the book to each event listed below:

In Northern California:

Tomorrow: Phil Cousineau and Gregg Chadwick on The Painted Word at Book Passage 

51 Tamal Vista Blvd | Corte Madera, California

Wednesday, September 12, 2012, 7:00 PM (Art by Gregg Chadwick Courtesy The Sandra Lee Gallery, San Francisco)

Thursday: Phil Cousineau and Gregg Chadwick on The Painted Word 

City Lights Booksellers | 261 Columbus Avenue | San Francisco, California

Thursday, September 13, 2012, 7:00 PM (Art by Gregg Chadwick Courtesy The Sandra Lee Gallery, San Francisco)

In Southern California:

Phil Cousineau and Gregg Chadwick on The Painted Word at Warwick's Books | 7812 Girard Avenue | La Jolla, California

Wednesday, November 7, 2012, 7:30 PM

Phil Cousineau and Gregg Chadwick on The Painted Word | Book Soup | 8818 Sunset Blvd West | Hollywood, California

Thursday, November 8, 2012, 7:00 PM

NEW BOOK:  The Painted Word By Phil Cousineau and Gregg Chadwick

"When Phil Cousineau and Gregg Chadwick join creative forces it is an important event. This historic collaboration shines with fresh insights into both language and art."
— Alexander Eliot, author of 300 Years of American Painting and The Global Myths

Notes on the Artwork In The Painted Word
When I was young, the form of words—the way they looked— intrigued me and I often wondered what it would be like to look at a word and not be able to read or understand it. In essence, I wondered about the indecipherable mystery behind the word. The artworks I have created for The Painted Word take that sense of mystery into the world of paint and image.

Each creation began with that wonderful, slippery stuff that never wants to be tamed or pinned down: paint. Specifically, I use oil paint for its historical resonance and also because of its liquid origins in the oil pressed from flax. From this plant comes both linseed oil, which is mixed with dry powdered pigments to create oil paint, and linen, which traditionally has been used as the surface that oils are painted upon. Whenever I unroll a new bolt of linen in my studio a rich fragrance reminis- cent of a newly cut field fills the room.

I find that freshly stretched paintings waiting for their first touch of color invite the mystery of life and creation. The word stories written by Phil Cousineau opened up a similar sense of wonder. Like the words, each tube of paint also brought its history into the room. Color names are words steeped in myth and meaning. Lapis Lazuli evokes dangerous treks along the Silk Road into Afghanistan that brought this exquisite blue stone into the workshops of Renaissance artists. The pigment was so expensive and so important it was often reserved for coloring the heavens and Mary’s garments. A separate clause in the artist’s contract would dictate how much the client would pay for the Lapis Lazuli in addition to the amount paid for the artist’s services. Other colors weren’t so dear but were still rich in lore. Burnt Sienna is a warm brown earth pigment that was dug up in the fields surrounding Siena, Italy. Cinnabar, a brilliant red originally found in minerals veined with mercury, also made its way along the Silk Road from its source in China. I used all three of these colors in many of the paintings in The Painted Word.

Gregg Chadwick

(From The Painted Word, available in September 2012. 

Published in the United States by Viva Editions, an imprint of Cleis Press, Inc., 2246 Sixth Street, Berkeley, California 94710.)

"If The Painted Word were a club act, I'd sit there drinking in Cousineau's revelations, tales and mythologies until they kicked me out of the joint. Reading this brew of etymology, history, lore, and pop connections, with lambent illustrations by Gregg Chadwick, is just as intoxicating. A Cousineau riff on a (passionately selected) word is like Mark Twain meets Coleridge meets Casey Stengel meets---well, everyone who's fun and informative, whether the riff is on autologophagist (someone who eats his/her words) or jack, which, believe me, the world-traveled Cousineau knows when it comes to language. "

—Arthur Plotnik, author of The Elements of Expression: Putting Thoughts Into Words

Barcarole

Gregg Chadwick 

Barcarole

14"x14" oil on linen 2012

Mulholland Drive

Gregg Chadwick

Mulholland Drive

30"x40" oil on linen 2012

Now Represented by the Sandra Lee Gallery!

I am honored to announce that my artwork is now represented in San Francisco and the Bay Area by the 

Sandra Lee Gallery
251 Post Street, Suite 310
San Francisco, CA 94108
tel: 415.291.8000
art@sandraleegallery.com

Four of my latest paintings are hanging in the gallery, including my most recent artwork - West Village Reader (see below). Please stop in to view the art and say hello to Sandra Lee.

Gregg Chadwick

West Village Reader

14"x11" oil on linen 2012