Sean Griskenas
Contact Information
Education
I received a Bachelor of Arts degree in Medieval History and a Bachelor of Arts degree in Plastic and Graphic Arts from the University of Illinois, Chicago, Summa Cum Laude, 1975. I earned both a Master of Arts in painting and MFA in painting from the University of Wisconsin, Madison, Magna Cum Laude, 1977.
Narrative Vitae
I have combined success in business with a life in the arts. Throughout a career as an executive vice president in scientific/medical publishing, I continued to pursue my experimental innovations. I completed and exhibited large-scale commissioned works in Torino, Italy and collaborated with a Chicago concert pianist on a visual art/music performance titled “Art Song”.
My experience in business coupled with my expertise in management informed and accommodated the inevitable demands of working in relative obscurity and isolation. It freed me from pressure to conform and allowed me to move, unimpeded, in the direction I set myself. In 1999, I abandoned the business world to focus entirely on painting.
Artist's Statement
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My work has always been about providing new thought on what painting might be. My paintings investigate and challenge the conventional idea of painting as a flat rectangular surface that uses illusion to create depth. Using large-scale canvas and large-scale painted voiles (up to 10’ x 30’ ), I create multidimensional works that invite the viewer to walk in, around, and through the painting.
The works afford the viewer the opportunity to see the inside and the outside of a painting in addition to everything in between. Viewers create the piece as they meander through the work, shift points of view, and directly experience being surrounded by color and form. These works explore the relationship between the viewer and the object and how they influence one another mutually and reciprocally - a continuous influence that happens consciously and unconsciously as long as the viewer is engaged in the activity of looking.
In my smaller works, I challenge the conventional rectangular painting on its own terms. First creating traditional stretched canvases, I paint both sides in accessible soft, bright, acrylic watercolor compositions, then slash them to reveal the back side. The opening is filled with an additional composition in voile and is backlit. These paintings seem to burst open as if to show graphic dissatisfaction with accepted and conventional definitions of painting.
Select Exhibitions
Robert Morris College - Chicago, IL - June, 2005
TZ Gallery - Chicago, IL - October, 2004
Around the Coyote - Chicago, IL - September, 2004
ARC Gallery, Main Gallery - Chicago, IL - September, 2004
Saint Xavier University SXU Gallery - Chicago, IL - February 2004
Art in the Garden, Group Show - Joliet, IL - July, 2003
Art in the Garden, Group Show - Joliet, IL - July 2002
Around the Coyote - Chicago, IL - 2001
Studio Castellamonte - Torino, Italy - 1997
20th Century Art Song, A Collaboration - Oak Park, IL - 1986
ICC Corp. HQ, Invitational Show - Chicago, IL - 1983
One Illinois Center, Juried Solo Exhibition - Chicago, IL - 1980
North Central College, Group Show - Naperville, IL - 1978
Select Collections
John Vorrasi - Chicago, IL
Signore and Signora GianMatteo Strola - Torino, Italy
Legacy Realty - Boca Raton, FL
North Central College Library Collection - Naperville, IL
Mrs. Cheryl Rozychi - San Diego, CA
Ms. Joanne Trappani, Village President - Oak Park, IL
Mr. and Mrs. Joseph Benoit - Boston, MA
Estate of Daniel Reber - Chicago, IL
Mr. and Mrs. Richard Yundt - Wheaton, IL
Professor Mary Becker - Oak Park, IL
Mr. and Mrs. Thomas Gillespie - Chicago, IL
Estate of Mary T. Rausa - Rockford, IL
Mr. and Mrs. William McVey, Chicago, IL
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