Artist Spotlight: Julie Gross

As part of our Artist Spotlight series, we introduce you this month to Julie Gross. Julie Gross was born in Montreal and is a New York City based artist who has been painting in studios in Soho and Chelsea for many years. She graduated from Pratt (BFA) & then Hunter (MA) and has taught at various colleges including Parsons School of Design, Pratt & RISD.

Getting to Know You…

Of all the places you have traveled, which resonates most with you?

So far: Italy…maybe because I’ve been to that country so many times and when I’ve gone it’s been mainly to see art: …(and eat!) …from Byzantine to Baroque in Sicily, the Renaissance in Florence,
the Romans in Rome…Residency in Apulia one summer…But then again..Greece..including Crete with it’s Minoan temples and goddess imagery…was very pivotal for me and my work in the 80’s!! yikes!

 

What do you feel is the biggest challenge facing Africa today?

Big umbrella answer: creating viable economies that keep the people fed, clothed, sheltered, educated and culturally sustained!!

 

It often feels like one person can’t make a difference supporting the many environmental causes there are today. What small steps can people make to help conservation/preservation efforts in Africa or globally? 

I think this is a naturally occurring assumption….can’t help but be until there’s a realization that we do not live in a bubble or a vacuum;  with hope and awareness all steps help and connecting w/ others in ‘the effort’ keeps the momentum building, the faith being kept. And what’s our alternative: to do absolutely nothing? We have to internalize the necessity of doing something.
Small steps people can take:
a. Getting information out…conveying it via visually rich, succinct verbal content…that connects worlds of both shared & differing experiences..
b. Suggesting ways to take that information and process it, connect it up w/ the rest of the world
c. (note: these are big generalities..but it’s a start)

 

What themes or personal experiences are most commonly evoked in your art?

a. ‘(Prismatic)BodyTracings/Light & Growth’ (started w/ literally tracing my form, repeating it…into radial mandalas/ then using wood grain patterns and painting them ‘prismatically’ according to the color-order shown while looking through a prism.
b. ‘Event Horizons’ (series involved attempts at expanding: time/space/air & light)…I almost have to laugh..but really… the goal was an attempt at those kind of expansions, expressed visually of course..
c. ‘Color/Time/Space’- circle works
d. ‘Sine-Wave Ribbons/Horizons’- (current ongoing series) see d below
 Prismatic Body Tracing 1978small
a. Prismatic Body Tracing 1978  oil & wax on plywood  22″ x 32″
EveHor_3_110
b. Event Horizon #3  1989 52″ x 98″ a biggie..have sold almost all the others!!

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA

c. Mirro-B   2008  24″ x 24″

 

What are you currently working on?

Currently working on: Sine Wave Ribbons and (about to be) Horizontal Sine Horizons: These current works contrast rhythmic color and form fields based on sine waves or ‘s’ curves. This work continues an engagement with images of flux vs. stasis and of spatial and temporal play.
VSH study #24teeny
d. V Sine Horizon study #24 (currently working on this series, about to begin horizontals)

 

How do you continue to stay inspired?

I’m inspired by a lot…from the eclipse this past fall at our house upstate (took the below shot)… to reading about physics/the secret life of octopii/neuroscience & sacred geometry/and seeing lots of other art like this past summer I saw Frida Kahlo/China Through the Looking Glass/The New Whitney.

IMG_0715eclipse:copy

What websites and blogs to you frequently visit?

Hyperallergic/ArtStack/Artsicle/FirstDibs/Facebook/GluttonforLife/House&Garden/IdeelArt

What was the last book you read?

Last book: “The Conscience of the Eye” by Richard Sennett

Reading now: “My Struggle” by Karl Ove Knausgaard

Next book to read: “The Soul of An Octopus”by Sy Montgomery

What music do you listen to?

Blues:Leadbelly

Jazz: Monk/Horace Silver/Miles Davis

Rai/Brazillian/Tibetan Chanting/Balinese Gamelon

 

By |January 14th, 2016|Artist Spotlight|0 Comments

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