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GRIGORY GUREVICH
Mr.
Grigory Gurevich is a fine artist: a painter, sculptor, graphic
artist, photographer, illustrator, book maker a mime and inventor.
He was born in Leningrad (Sankt Petersburg), Russia, in the family
of an architect. When World War II began, he and a small group of
children were evacuated and went to live in Kashtak, Siberia.
Parents weren’t allowed to go, but his mother couldn’t take the
thought of separation and jumped on the train at the last minute.
After the War, the family reunited in Leningrad (Sankt Petersburg),
but their apartment was occupied. They stayed with his aunt, crowded
in the dining room with one sofa. His father designed the first
atomic city Dubna, located near Moscow and instead of receiving a
large financial grant, he received the medal for defense of
Leningrad and was fired by the government from his job because he
was a Jew and had never been a member of Communist Party. Family had
a difficult financial time. When Grigory was 14 years old his
parents divorced and he stayed with his father. His brother Michael
was 4 years old at that time. Grigory studied visual arts, theater
and music. His work was first exhibited in the United Exhibit of
artists in Moscow when he was fifteen years old. He received a
Master of Arts Degree from the Academy of Fine and Industrial Arts
of Sankt Petersburg. After the graduation he designed the interiors
of public buildings in Russia. His first one – person exhibition was
held in1971 at the Architectural House in Leningrad. He came to the
United States in 1976 with $90 in his pocket he started to learn
English. and in 1984 he was granted Citizenship and turned his
attention to producing and teaching arts.
His
first group show was on Madison Avenue in New York City, where 6
tempera paintings were exhibited and sold. It was extremely
difficult to start in new country from ground zero. To support his
art and to develop his theater he worked odd jobs around the clock:
driving his car as a car service, did antique restoration, jewelry
design, carpentry, etc. At the same time he was producing his art
and rehearsing with his mimes new plays and teaching art and theater
students from low income families. In 1979 Grigory founded The
American “Grigur’s Pantomime Theater” as a non – profit
organization. From 1977 until 1985 company performed in the United
States, Denmark and Germany, while Grigory was teaching and
producing art. The span of his artist’s interests is “universal” in
a very specific sense – he sees everything and perceives the
unifying element in all that exists. At the same time hardly a media
remains in which he didn’t try to convey his visions. The work of
Grigory Gurevich includes paintings,, drawings, sculpture, ceramics,
and other. His drawing and graphic works hint at the influence of
Piranesi and Serat, both in spirit and form. Grigory Gurevich
believes that black and white image has aesthetics uniqueness and stirs
imagination. His pen and ink drawings are created by continuous line
without initial markings by pencil. This “spider – web” technique Grigory Gurevich discovered by accident in 1981 trying to get dry
ink from ink pen. His ink line moves effortlessly vibrating and
producing mirage – like images, which dissolve themselves in cosmic
eternity. Images, created that way leave the viewer with feeling of
being immersed in some kind of foggy shadows.
Watercolor is a media of his childhood. He was 5 when he remembered
himself doing watercolor of stuffed bird on the stretched watercolor
paper. When he was 15 his father gave him very special present -
unique hand made watercolors of outstanding quality from village Krukovo, which is located near Moscow. Watercolors were hand made by
one old man and his son. They grinded the pigments and mixed them
with gum arabic and something ells they kept secret. Colors were
poured in metal beer cups and some where dropped like candy on
strips of paper – about twenty colors in one line. When his father
put colors on the table, they looked like dozens of candies of many
different colors. Grisha – his family name was thrilled. Watercolors
were cut and glued on wooden plate.
The master watercolor maker and his son, who kept the secret of
making them, were heavy vodka drinkers and both passes away in the
70’s, taking with them the secret.
The set is still a life and watercolors you can see in this
catalogue are painted with it. Grigory was a faculty member of
Newark School of Fine and industrial Arts in Newark, New Jersey and
Professor of St. Johns University in New York, Queens where he
taught sculpture, ceramics, drawing and anatomy. In 1984 Grigory
completed a sculpture tableau ”Commuters”, which includes 7 life
size characters (circa 1935). It was casted in bronze in 1985 and
has been permanently installed at Penn Station in Newark, New
Jersey. Since his arrival in the United States he’s had more then
300 exhibitions and conducted more then 200 sculpture and many
pantomime workshops. He received many awards and honorable mentions
for his sculptures, paintings and drawings. His work has been
displayed in New York, New Jersey, Copenhagen (Denmark), Montgeron
(France), Munich and Konstanz (Germany), and has being reviewed in
many national and European publications and television programs. His
work is in many private collections, including famous personalities
– Arkady Raikin in Russia, Marcel Marceau in France, Debora yiu
Miller in Switzerland and David Letterman in the United States as
well as in permanent collection of Museum of Russian Contemporary
Art in Jersey City, and Montclair Museum in Montclair, New Jersey.
Since 1992 he was involved in creating his art books –
“Reflections”, “Holocaust” and ”Kinetic” or “Magic” books. One of
his books “Reflections” which featured 17 linocuts, etchings and
mixed media prints has been included in the print collection in
Hermitage Museum in Leningrad (Sankt Petersburg), Russia another one
is in New York Public Library on Fifth Avenue and Saint Bonaventure
University – Department of prints. In April 1995 Mr. Gurevich was
granted a patent on new type of manifolding (kinetic) book. Several
his kinetic books are in collection of artist’s books in Columbia
University of Chicago and one “1-10; 10-1” is in the Library of
Brooklyn Museum. In 1996 Grigory was commissioned to create a bronze
bust of Kazuo Hashimoto – Japanese – American inventor, a head of
Intel Corporation who has had more then thousand inventions in the
field of telephone and computer communication. Several of his
inventions, most familiar to the world is an “Answering Machine” and
“Caller ID”.
The
bronze bust, Grigory created is installed in NJIT near the Library
in Newark, New Jersey. In 1998 Grigory founded Arts on the Hudson
after school Art Program for children and adults and Art Workshops
Festival. This program has scholarship for low income families with
the support from CDBG of Jersey City. The Festival is free for
participants. Both programs are sponsored by the Geraldine R, Dodge
Foundation, Hudson County Office of Tourism in cooperation with the
New Jersey State Council on the Arts, Provident Bank, local
businesses and privately. His art work was featured by leading
publications in the United States and abroad as: New York Times,
Metro Newark, Who is Who in America, American Artist, Geraldine R,
Dodge Foundation Catalogue and many others.
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