Jump to content

Greg Colson: Difference between revisions

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Browse history interactively
← Previous editNext edit →
Content deleted Content added
VisualWikitext
Gallery representative added citations
Tags: Reverted Visual edit
Restored revision 1148153936 by Jay Oviont (talk): Revert spammig
Line 18: Line 18:
| training =
| training =
}}
}}
'''Greg Colson''' (born 1956, Seattle) is an American artist best known for works that straddle the line between painting and sculpture, while implying a skepticism towards established concepts of order and efficiency.  Using scavenged materials, Colson allows the physicality of his makeshift constructions to intrude on the precise systems he paints or draws upon their surfaces – striking a balance between subject and context, image and support, intention and accident. “Distraction is an important part of my art,” says the artist.  “It’s the condition of our lives in the information age, where the trivial and significant are put on an equal footing.”
'''Greg Colson''' (born April 23, 1956) is an American artist best known for his works that straddle the line between painting and sculpture, which address concepts of efficiency and order. Using scavenged materials, Colson allows the physicality of his makeshift constructions to intrude on the precise systems he paints or draws upon their surfaces - striking a balance between subject and context, image and support, order and chaos.


==Biography==
==Biography==
Greg Colson was born in Seattle, Washington and grew up in the Oildale section of [[Bakersfield, California]] with his parents and two brothers Doug and [[Jeff Colson|Jeff,]] who is also an artist.  His father Lewis Colson was a social worker but also a skilled mechanic and inventive with improvised repairs and adapting materials to new uses, which inspired his son’s appreciation of the ordinary and the rejected. The industrial environment of the Bakersfield/Oildale area, and its accompanying attitudes and outlook, also affected Colson – particularly in its contrast to the large urban/cultural centers he would later inhabit as an artist.
Colson was born in Seattle, Washington and grew up in [[Bakersfield, California]], in the nearby suburb of [[Oildale, California|Oildale]] with his parents and two brothers Doug and [[Jeff Colson|Jeff]], who is also an artist. His father Lewis Colson was a social worker but was also a skilled mechanic and inventive with makeshift repairs and adapting materials to new uses – which inspired his son's appreciation of the ordinary and the rejected. The industrial environment of the Bakersfield/Oildale area, and its accompanying attitudes and outlook, also affected Colson – particularly in its contrast to the large urban/cultural centers he would later inhabit as an artist.{{citation needed|date=April 2019}}


Colson received his B.A. from [[California State University, Bakersfield|California State University Bakersfield]] where he studied with George Ketterl, Ted Kerzie, Michael Heivly, and visiting artists J[[John McCracken (artist)|ohn McCracken,]] [[Joe Goode]], [[Edward Ruscha|Ed Ruscha]], [[James Turrell|James Turrel]]<nowiki/>l, and [[Ed Moses (artist)|Ed Moses]].  From 1978-80 he attended [[Claremont Graduate University]], studying with Tom Wudl, [[Michael Brewster (artist)|Michael Brewster]], and [[Roland Reiss]] and earned his M.F.A.  During the 1980s he supported himself by working as an apprentice for artists [[Vija Celmins]], Ruscha, and Wudl.  In 1987 he had his first solo exhibition with Angles Gallery.  Colson works and lives in [[Venice, Los Angeles|Venice, California]] with his wife, writer Dinah Kirgo.
He received his BA from [[California State University, Bakersfield|California State University Bakersfield]] where he studied with George Ketterl, Ted Kerzie, Michael Heively, and visiting artists [[John McCracken (artist)|John McCracken]], [[Joe Goode]], [[Edward Ruscha|Ed Ruscha]], [[James Turrell]], and [[Ed Moses (artist)|Ed Moses]]. From 1978-80 he attended [[Claremont Graduate University|Claremont Graduate School]], studying with Tom Wudl, [[Michael Brewster (artist)|Michael Brewster]], and [[Roland Reiss]] and earned his MFA. During the 1980s he apprenticed for artists [[Vija Celmins]], Ruscha, and Wudl. In 1987 he had his first solo exhibition with Angles Gallery. Colson currently{{when|date=January 2017}} works and lives in Venice, California with his wife, writer Dinah Kirgo.<ref>{{citation|author1=Hulten, Pontus|title=Greg Colson|year=1999|publisher=Whale and Star Press|author2=Wegner, Peter}}</ref><ref>{{citation|author=Rothman, Tibby|title=Beyond the Image – Interview with Greg Colson|url=http://www.venicepaper.net/pmt_more.php?id=291_0_1_0_M|year=2006|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20071017012155/http://www.venicepaper.net/pmt_more.php?id=291_0_1_0_M|url-status=dead|publisher=Venice Paper|archivedate=October 17, 2007}}. Access date June 27, 2009</ref>


==Works==
==Works==


The diagrams and maps that Colson deploys in his art speak to the detached, abstract quality of much human analysis, while smuggling social critique into each work. [[Roberta Smith]], in her [https://www.gregcolson.org/writings?lightbox=dataItem-lhia0kmn ''The New York Times''] review, described Colson’s 1990 debut exhibition at [[Sperone Westwater Gallery]]: “In nearly all of Mr. Colson’s works, the combination of modesty and grandiosity, of mental exactness and physical imprecision adds up to an odd, sad beauty.  Elliptical as they are, his pieces often seem to scrutinize the conflict between the active center and deserted margins of industrialized society."<ref>{{citation |author=Smith, Roberta |title=These Are the Faces to Watch |date=January 5, 1990 |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1990/01/05/arts/fresh-hot-and-headed-for-fame-these-are-the-faces-to-watch-art.html?scp=2&sq=greg%20colson&st=cse |work=The New York Times |accessdate=June 27, 2009}}</ref>
Colson's diagrams and maps speak to the detached, abstract quality of much human analysis, at the same time smuggling social critique into each work. [[Roberta Smith]] of ''[[The New York Times]]'' described Colson's 1990 debut exhibition at [[Sperone Westwater Gallery]]: "In nearly all of Mr. Colson's works, the combination of modesty and grandiosity, of mental exactness and physical imprecision adds up to an odd, sad beauty. Elliptical as they are, his pieces often seem to scrutinize the conflict between the active center and deserted margins of industrialized society."<ref>{{citation|title=These Are the Faces to Watch|author=Smith, Roberta|work=The New York Times|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1990/01/05/arts/fresh-hot-and-headed-for-fame-these-are-the-faces-to-watch-art.html?scp=2&sq=greg%20colson&st=cse|date=January 5, 1990|accessdate=June 27, 2009}}</ref>


Among Colson’s body of work is a series of ‘Stick Maps’ of cities such as “Cleveland’ (1991), “San Jose” (2001), and “Baton Rouge” (1988).  These sculptures are built of found lengths of various materials; ski poles, curtain rods, metal pipe, wood moulding – the structure becoming a metaphor for the manifold influences on a city.  In his catalogue essay for the “[https://www.gregcolson.org/writings?lightbox=dataItem-lhi9i7ap Mapping]” exhibition at the [[Museum of Modern Art|Museum of Modern Ar]]<nowiki/>t, curator [[Robert Storr (art academic)|Robert Storr]] wrote: “The maps of Californian Greg Colson derive their character from the aesthetic convergence of the strip and the scrap.  The strip is the dominant axis of the U.S. car-dependent metropolis, and should be used as a collective rather than a singular noun, since the more they mushroom outward, the more intricately our cities are criss-crossed by such matrices.  The scrap is the antithesis of the strip: it is an absolutely particular thing, the discard people traveling and consuming at high speed have no further use for.  Colson’s ‘Portland’ is an engagingly makeshift template of a streamlined world.”<ref>{{Cite book |last=Storr |first=Robert |url=https://www.gregcolson.org/writings?lightbox=dataItem-lhi9i7ap |title=Mapping |publisher=The Museum of Modern Art: Distributed by H.N. Abrams |year=1994 |isbn=0870701215 |pages=15-16, 27}}</ref>
Colson's series of ‘Stick Maps’ of cities such as Cleveland, San Jose, and Baton Rouge are built of found lengths of assorted materials; ski poles, curtain rods, plastic pipe, wood molding – the structure becoming a metaphor for the manifold influences on a city.{{citation needed|date=April 2019}} His constructed ‘Pie Chart’ paintings based on socio-cultural surveys, mock analysis. Colson's 'Elliptical Models' paintings incorporate, the ordinary and the profound and suggest preposterous hierarchies using the formal through-line of the circle. Sharon Mizota, in her ''[[Los Angeles Times]]'' review of Colson's 2010 exhibition at William Griffin Gallery (now Kayne Griffin Corcoran), characterized these works as "grand and hilarious testaments to the leveling effect of data overload. "One [piece] includes concentric circles depicting ‘5 Steps to Happiness,’ ‘Flea Life Cycle,’ ‘The Cycle of Addiction,’ and for good measure, a flange gasket. The piece levels the distinctions between these wide-ranging phenomena in an absurdly uninformative information graphic."<ref>{{Cite web|title = Art review: Greg Colson at Griffin|url = http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/culturemonster/2010/01/art-review-greg-colson-at-griffin.html|website = LA Times Blogs - Culture Monster|date = January 30, 2010|access-date = January 16, 2016}}</ref> More recently, Colson has designed and created large-scale outdoor sculptures.{{citation needed|date=April 2019}}

In his constructed ‘Pie Chart’ paintings based on socio-cultural surveys, Colson parodies our obsession with efficiency, data, and analysis – which are typically seen in the sleek, nonmaterial setting of the computer screen.  Colson’s pie chart titles have included subjects such as “Workplace Perks” (2004), “Unfriending” (2011), and “Top Concerns of Midterm Voters” (2023).  [https://hyperallergic.com/795569/seeing-ourselves-in-greg-colson-quirky-pie-chart-paintings/ HYPERALLERGIC] art critic J[[John Yau|ohn Yau]] characterized Colson’s 2023 exhibition at [[National Arts Club|The National Arts Club]]: “Rendered in a straightforward, documentary style, complete with graphic signs and changing typefaces, Colson’s pie charts can be funny, perverse, and unsettling, all while inducing alternating waves of laughter and despair.  Looking at “Leading British Phobias” (2011), viewers learn that a large percentage of the British populace has a phobia about “spiders,” “clowns,” and “needles.”  Among the other fears cited, Colson lists “dentistry, driving, and heights.”  Taken together, these sound like the key ingredients to an [[Alfred Hitchcock]] film.”

Other bodies of work include his ‘Directional’ sculptures, ‘Solar System Models,’ and ‘Aggregate’ paintings.  More recently, Colson has designed and created large scale site-specific sculptures and outdoor installations, including “Composite Fence,” “Action and Counteraction,” and “Bern (for Robert Walser).”


==Exhibitions==
==Exhibitions==
Colson has had solo exhibitions throughout the United States and Europe, including Sperone Westwater (New York), [[Patrick Painter|Patrick Painter Inc.]] (Los Angeles), [[Galerie Konrad Fischer]] (Düsseldorf), Gian Enzo Sperone (Rome), Galleria Cardi (Milan), Kunsthalle Lophem (Bruges, Belgium), [[Baldwin Gallery]] (Aspen), [[Krannert Art Museum]] (University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign), and the Lannan Museum (Lake Worth, Florida). Colson's work is in many public collections, including the [[Whitney Museum of American Art]] (New York), [[Metropolitan Museum of Art]] (New York), [[Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles|Museum of Contemporary Art]] (Los Angeles), [[Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden]] (Washington, D.C.), [[Giuseppe Panza|Panza Collection]] (Varese, Italy), Sammlung Rosenkranz (Berlin), and [[Moderna Museet]] (Stockholm).<ref name="GregColson2006">{{citation|title=Greg Colson: The Architecture of Distraction|publisher=Griffin Editions|year=2006}}</ref>
Greg Colson’s art has been the subject of over 40 solo exhibitions internationally, including [[Sperone Westwater Gallery]] (New York), Craig Krull Gallery (Santa Monica, CA.), [[Konrad Fischer Galerie]] (Dusseldorf), Cardi Gallery (Milan), Gian Enzo Sperone (Rome), Thomas Park Gallery (Seoul), [[Baldwin Gallery]] (Aspen, CO.), [[William Griffin Gallery]] (Los Angeles),  [[Kunsthalle Lophem]] (Bruges, Belgium), [[Krannert Art Museum]] (Urbana-Champaign, IL.), and the Lannan Museum (Lake Worth, FL.).


==Selected collections==
==Selected collections==
{{more citations needed|section|date=April 2019}}
{{more citations needed|section|date=April 2019}}
Colson’s work is in collections throughout the United States and Europe, including the [[Whitney Museum|Whitney Museum of American Art]] (New York), [[Museum of Modern Art]] (New York), [[Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden]] (Washington, D.C.), [[Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles|Museum of Contemporary Art]] (Los Angeles), [[Getty Research Institute]] (Los Angeles), [[Los Angeles County Museum of Art]], [[Panza Collection]] (Varese, Italy), Sammlung Rosenkranz (Berlin), and [[Moderna Museet]] (Stockholm).
Greg Colson's work is included in collections at the Getty Research Institute, Los Angeles, CA; Hammer Museum, Los Angeles, CA; Henry Art Gallery, Seattle, WA; Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Washington, D.C.; Krannert Art Museum, Urbana-Champaignm Illinois; Los Angeles County Museum of Art, CA; Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY; Moderna Museet, Stockholm, Sweden; Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles, CA; Museum of Contemporary Art, San Diego, CA; Museum of Modern Art, New York, NY; New York Public Library, New York, NY; [[Panza Collection]], Lugano, Switzerland; Sammlung Rosenkranz, Berlin, Germany; Tsaritsino Museum of Contemporary Art, Moscow, Russia; UBS Art Collection, Zurich, Switzerland; [[Vancouver Art Gallery]], British Columbia, Canada; Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, NY.<ref name="GregColson2006"/>


==References==
==References==
Line 49: Line 45:
===Monographs===
===Monographs===


* '''Greg Colson: 14 Day Juice Challenge.''' Interview with Nina Holland. [[Steidl|Little Steidl]], Gottingen, Germany, 2022.
* '''Greg Colson''', Galleria Cardi, Milan. Essay by Robert Evren, 2001
* '''Greg Colson: Paintings, Wallworks, Pie Charts.''' W.L. Griffin Editions, Santa Monica, CA., 2010
* '''Greg Colson''', Whale and Star Press. Texts by [[Pontus Hulten]] and Peter Wegner, 1999
* '''Greg Colson''', Lannan Museum, Lake Worth, FL. Essay by [[Bonnie Clearwater]], 1988
* '''Greg Colson: The Architecture of Distraction.''' Interview with Genevieve Devitt. W. L. Griffin Editions, Santa Monica, CA., 2006. Exhibition catalog
* '''Greg Colson.''' Essay by Robert Evren. Cardi Gallery, Milan, 2001
* '''Greg Colson: The Architecture of Distraction''', Griffin Editions, Los Angeles. Interview with Genevieve Devitt, 2006
* '''Greg Colson.''' Forward by Pontus Hulten. Interview with Peter Wegner. Whale and Star Press, Venice, CA., 1999
* '''Greg Colson: Krannert Art Museum''', University of Illinois. Essay by David Pagel, 1996
* '''Greg Colson: Krannert Art Museum.''' Essay by David Pagel. University of Illinois, Urbana Champaign, 1996. Exhibition catalog
* '''Greg Colson: Lannan Museum.''' Essay by Bonnie Clearwater. Lannan Foundation, Lake Worth, FL., 1988. Exhibition catalog


===Selected books and catalogues===
===Selected books and catalogues===
* '''[https://www.speronewestwater.com/catalogues/american-bricolage#tab:slideshow American Bricolage]''', Sperone Westwater, New York. Todd Alden, David Leiber and [[Tom Sachs (artist)|Tom Sachs]], 2000
* '''American Bricolage''', Sperone Westwater, New York. Todd Alden, David Leiber and [[Tom Sachs (artist)|Tom Sachs]], 2000
* [https://www.gregcolson.org/writings?lightbox=dataItem-lhi9i7ap '''Mapping''', Museum of Modern Art, New York. Essay by Robert Storr, 1994]
* '''Mapping''', [[Museum of Modern Art]], New York. Essay by [[Robert Storr (art academic)|Robert Storr]], 1994
* [https://www.moca.org/exhibition/panza-the-legacy-of-a-collector '''Panza: The Legacy of a Collector''',] Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles. Texts by Kenneth Baker, Cornelia H. Butler, Rebecca Morse and [[Giuseppe Panza]], 1999
* '''Panza: The Legacy of a Collector''', Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles. Texts by Kenneth Baker, Cornelia H. Butler, Rebecca Morse and [[Giuseppe Panza]], 1999
* '''[https://books.google.com/books/about/Giuseppe_Panza.html?id=r9GeswEACAAJ Giuseppe Panza: Memories of a Collector]''', Abbeville Press, New York. By [[Giuseppe Panza]], 2007
* '''Giuseppe Panza: Memories of a Collector''', Abbeville Press, New York. By [[Giuseppe Panza]], 2007
* [https://collections.si.edu/search/record/siris_sil_665317 '''Gian Enzo Sperone: Torino, Roma, New York''',] Hopefulmonster Editore, Turin. Texts by Anna Minola, Maria Cristina Mundici, Francesco Poli, Maria Teresa Roberto, 2000
* '''Gian Enzo Sperone: Torino, Roma, New York''', Hopefulmonster Editore, Turin. Texts by Anna Minola, Maria Cristina Mundici, Francesco Poli, Maria Teresa Roberto, 2000
* [https://www.abebooks.com/Sammlung-Rosenkranz-Heydt-Museum-Fehlemann-Sabine-Frank/6812334064/bd '''Sammlung Rosenkranz im Von der Heydt-Museum''',] Wuppertal, Germany. Texts by Sabine Fehlemann, Peter Frank, [[Pontus Hulten]], 2002
* '''Sammlung Rosenkranz im Von der Heydt-Museum''', Wuppertal, Germany. Texts by Sabine Fehlemann, Peter Frank, [[Pontus Hulten]], 2002


===Selected articles===
===Selected articles===
⚫
* Maartje Den Breejen. "Intentie en Ongeluk-Als het Leven Zelf." '''Het PAROOL''' (Amsterdam), September 6, 2002, p.&nbsp;11
* [https://hyperallergic.com/795569/seeing-ourselves-in-greg-colson-quirky-pie-chart-paintings/ Greg Colson in HYPERALLERGIC, ''Seeing Ourselves in Greg Colson’s Quirky Pie Chart Paintings'' by John Yau, January 25, 2023.]
⚫
* David Hunt. "Spotlight: Greg Colson." '''Flash Art''', November–December 1998, p.&nbsp;105
* [https://hyperallergic.com/551639/ways-of-traveling-greg-colson/ Greg Colson in HYPERALLERGIC, ''Ways of Traveling'' by John Yau, April 4, 2020.]
* Ken Johnson. [https://www.nytimes.com/2001/02/16/arts/art-in-review-greg-colson.html?scp=1&sq=greg%20colson&st=cse “Greg Colson-review.”] '''The New York Times''', February 16, 2001, p. B37
* Ken Johnson. [https://www.nytimes.com/2001/02/16/arts/art-in-review-greg-colson.html?scp=1&sq=greg%20colson&st=cse “Greg Colson-review.”] '''The New York Times''', February 16, 2001, p. B37
* [https://www.gregcolson.org/writings?lightbox=dataItem-lhi9v565 John Russell. “Greg Colson-review.” '''The New York Times''', January 12, 1990, p.&nbsp;C27]
* George Melrod. [http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m1248/is_n9_v82/ai_15828126/ “Greg Colson at Sperone Westwater.”] '''Art in America''', September 1994, p.&nbsp;112
⚫
* Sharon Mizota. "Art review: Greg Colson at Griffin." '''Los Angeles Times''', January 30, 2010
⚫
* Roberta Smith. [https://www.nytimes.com/1990/01/05/arts/fresh-hot-and-headed-for-fame-these-are-the-faces-to-watch-art.html?scp=2&sq=greg%20colson&st=cse “These Are the Faces to Watch.”] '''The New York Times''', January 5, 1990, p.&nbsp;C21
* Sally O'Reilly. "Greg Colson at Sprovieri." '''Time Out''' (London), January 16, 2002, p.&nbsp;48
⚫
* [https://www.latimes.com/archives/blogs/culture-monster-blog/story/2010-01-30/art-review-greg-colson-at-griffin Sharon Mizota. "Art review: Greg Colson at Griffin." '''Los Angeles Times''', January 30, 2010]
* [https://www.gregcolson.org/writings?lightbox=dataItem-lhi9m4tx George Melrod. “Greg Colson at Sperone Westwater.” '''Art in America''', September 1994, p.&nbsp;112]
⚫
* [https://www.gregcolson.org/writings?lightbox=dataItem-lhi9clbe David Hunt. "Spotlight: Greg Colson." '''Flash Art''', November–December 1998, p.&nbsp;105]
* [[Jerry Saltz]]. [https://www.gregcolson.org/writings?lightbox=dataItem-lhi9s4pi "Greg Colson: Liberating Materials From Materiality." '''Flash Art''', May–June 1990, p.&nbsp;150]
* Tibby Rothman. [https://web.archive.org/web/20071017012155/http://www.venicepaper.net/pmt_more.php?id=291_0_1_0_M “Beyond the Image – Interview with Greg Colson”] '''Venice Paper''', October 2006
* Tibby Rothman. [https://web.archive.org/web/20071017012155/http://www.venicepaper.net/pmt_more.php?id=291_0_1_0_M “Beyond the Image – Interview with Greg Colson”] '''Venice Paper''', October 2006
* John Russell. [https://www.nytimes.com/1990/01/12/arts/review-art-heady-and-hectic-works-from-jennifer-bartlett.html?scp=5&sq=greg%20colson&st=cse “Greg Colson-review.”] '''The New York Times''', January 12, 1990, p.&nbsp;C27
⚫
* Maartje Den Breejen. "Intentie en Ongeluk-Als het Leven Zelf." '''Het PAROOL''' (Amsterdam), September 6, 2002, p.&nbsp;11
* [https://www.timeout.com/london Sally O'Reilly. "Greg Colson at Sprovieri." '''Time Out''' (London), January 16, 2002, p.&nbsp;48]
* [[Jerry Saltz]]. "Greg Colson: Liberating Materials From Materiality." '''Flash Art''', May–June 1990, p.&nbsp;150
⚫
* Roberta Smith. [https://www.nytimes.com/1990/01/05/arts/fresh-hot-and-headed-for-fame-these-are-the-faces-to-watch-art.html?scp=2&sq=greg%20colson&st=cse “These Are the Faces to Watch.”] '''The New York Times''', January 5, 1990, p.&nbsp;C21
* [https://www.gregcolson.org/writings?lightbox=dataItem-lhi8teo2 “Goings on About Town: Art” '''The New Yorker.''' February 19 & 26, 2001, p. 40]
* [https://www.gregcolson.org/writings?lightbox=dataItem-lhqxsb46 Colin Gardener. "Colson's Semantic Playground". Los Angeles Herald Examiner. December 16, 1988, p. 48.]


==External links==
==External links==
{{Commons category|Greg Colson}}
{{Commons category|Greg Colson}}
* [http://gregcolson.org Official Website]
* [http://gregcolson.org Official Website]
* [https://www.moma.org/artists/1199 Greg Colson at the Museum of Modern Art, New York]
* [http://collection.whitney.org/artist/11294/GregColson Greg Colson at the Whitney]
* [http://collection.whitney.org/artist/11294/GregColson Greg Colson at the Whitney Museum of American Art]
* [http://www.moca.org/search?q=greg+colson Greg Colson at MOCA]
⚫
* [http://hirshhorn.si.edu/search-results/?edan_search_value=Greg%20Colson#detail=http%3A//hirshhorn.si.edu/search-results/search-result-details/%3Fedan_search_value%3Dhmsg_91.9 Greg Colson at the Hirshhorn]
* [https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search?q=Greg+Colson&sortBy=Relevance&pageSize=0 Greg Colson at the Metropolitan Museum of Art]
⚫
* [http://hirshhorn.si.edu/search-results/?edan_search_value=Greg%20Colson#detail=http%3A//hirshhorn.si.edu/search-results/search-result-details/%3Fedan_search_value%3Dhmsg_91.9 Greg Colson at the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden]
* [http://www.moca.org/search?q=greg+colson Greg Colson at the Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles]
* [https://collections.lacma.org/node/155105 Greg Colson at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art]
* [https://sis.modernamuseet.se/people/11857/greg-colson;jsessionid=026780582129DDD5E5E3E3BC035FD376/objects Greg Colson at the Moderna Museet, Stockholm]
* [https://panzacollection.org/en/artisti/dettaglio/29/Greg/Colson/ Greg Colson at the Panza Collection]
* [https://www.moma.org/documents/moma_catalogue_436_300293631.pdf Greg Colson in ''Mapping'', Museum of Modern Art, New York. Essay by Robert Storr, 1994, catalog, pg 15-16, 27.]
* [https://steidl.de/Artists/Greg-Colson-0304146159.html Greg Colson book at Steidl]
* [https://www.speronewestwater.com/exhibitions/greg-colson4#tab:slideshow Greg Colson at Sperone Westwater]


{{Authority control}}
{{Authority control}}

Revision as of 00:25, 17 May 2023

Greg Colson
Born
Greg Colson

(1956-04-23) April 23, 1956 (age 68)
Seattle, Washington, U.S.
NationalityAmerican
Known forPainting, sculpture, drawing, printmaking, photography
MovementAssemblage, conceptual art, arte povera

Greg Colson (born April 23, 1956) is an American artist best known for his works that straddle the line between painting and sculpture, which address concepts of efficiency and order. Using scavenged materials, Colson allows the physicality of his makeshift constructions to intrude on the precise systems he paints or draws upon their surfaces - striking a balance between subject and context, image and support, order and chaos.

Biography

Colson was born in Seattle, Washington and grew up in Bakersfield, California, in the nearby suburb of Oildale with his parents and two brothers Doug and Jeff, who is also an artist. His father Lewis Colson was a social worker but was also a skilled mechanic and inventive with makeshift repairs and adapting materials to new uses – which inspired his son's appreciation of the ordinary and the rejected. The industrial environment of the Bakersfield/Oildale area, and its accompanying attitudes and outlook, also affected Colson – particularly in its contrast to the large urban/cultural centers he would later inhabit as an artist.[citation needed]

He received his BA from California State University Bakersfield where he studied with George Ketterl, Ted Kerzie, Michael Heively, and visiting artists John McCracken, Joe Goode, Ed Ruscha, James Turrell, and Ed Moses. From 1978-80 he attended Claremont Graduate School, studying with Tom Wudl, Michael Brewster, and Roland Reiss and earned his MFA. During the 1980s he apprenticed for artists Vija Celmins, Ruscha, and Wudl. In 1987 he had his first solo exhibition with Angles Gallery. Colson currently[when?] works and lives in Venice, California with his wife, writer Dinah Kirgo.[1][2]

Works

Colson's diagrams and maps speak to the detached, abstract quality of much human analysis, at the same time smuggling social critique into each work. Roberta Smith of The New York Times described Colson's 1990 debut exhibition at Sperone Westwater Gallery: "In nearly all of Mr. Colson's works, the combination of modesty and grandiosity, of mental exactness and physical imprecision adds up to an odd, sad beauty. Elliptical as they are, his pieces often seem to scrutinize the conflict between the active center and deserted margins of industrialized society."[3]

Colson's series of ‘Stick Maps’ of cities such as Cleveland, San Jose, and Baton Rouge are built of found lengths of assorted materials; ski poles, curtain rods, plastic pipe, wood molding – the structure becoming a metaphor for the manifold influences on a city.[citation needed] His constructed ‘Pie Chart’ paintings based on socio-cultural surveys, mock analysis. Colson's 'Elliptical Models' paintings incorporate, the ordinary and the profound and suggest preposterous hierarchies using the formal through-line of the circle. Sharon Mizota, in her Los Angeles Times review of Colson's 2010 exhibition at William Griffin Gallery (now Kayne Griffin Corcoran), characterized these works as "grand and hilarious testaments to the leveling effect of data overload. "One [piece] includes concentric circles depicting ‘5 Steps to Happiness,’ ‘Flea Life Cycle,’ ‘The Cycle of Addiction,’ and for good measure, a flange gasket. The piece levels the distinctions between these wide-ranging phenomena in an absurdly uninformative information graphic."[4] More recently, Colson has designed and created large-scale outdoor sculptures.[citation needed]

Exhibitions

Colson has had solo exhibitions throughout the United States and Europe, including Sperone Westwater (New York), Patrick Painter Inc. (Los Angeles), Galerie Konrad Fischer (Düsseldorf), Gian Enzo Sperone (Rome), Galleria Cardi (Milan), Kunsthalle Lophem (Bruges, Belgium), Baldwin Gallery (Aspen), Krannert Art Museum (University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign), and the Lannan Museum (Lake Worth, Florida). Colson's work is in many public collections, including the Whitney Museum of American Art (New York), Metropolitan Museum of Art (New York), Museum of Contemporary Art (Los Angeles), Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden (Washington, D.C.), Panza Collection (Varese, Italy), Sammlung Rosenkranz (Berlin), and Moderna Museet (Stockholm).[5]

Selected collections

Greg Colson's work is included in collections at the Getty Research Institute, Los Angeles, CA; Hammer Museum, Los Angeles, CA; Henry Art Gallery, Seattle, WA; Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Washington, D.C.; Krannert Art Museum, Urbana-Champaignm Illinois; Los Angeles County Museum of Art, CA; Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY; Moderna Museet, Stockholm, Sweden; Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles, CA; Museum of Contemporary Art, San Diego, CA; Museum of Modern Art, New York, NY; New York Public Library, New York, NY; Panza Collection, Lugano, Switzerland; Sammlung Rosenkranz, Berlin, Germany; Tsaritsino Museum of Contemporary Art, Moscow, Russia; UBS Art Collection, Zurich, Switzerland; Vancouver Art Gallery, British Columbia, Canada; Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, NY.[5]

References

  1. ^ Hulten, Pontus; Wegner, Peter (1999), Greg Colson, Whale and Star Press
  2. ^ Rothman, Tibby (2006), Beyond the Image – Interview with Greg Colson, Venice Paper, archived from the original on October 17, 2007. Access date June 27, 2009
  3. ^ Smith, Roberta (January 5, 1990), "These Are the Faces to Watch", The New York Times, retrieved June 27, 2009
  4. ^ "Art review: Greg Colson at Griffin". LA Times Blogs - Culture Monster. January 30, 2010. Retrieved January 16, 2016.
  5. ^ a b Greg Colson: The Architecture of Distraction, Griffin Editions, 2006

Selected bibliography

Monographs

  • Greg Colson, Galleria Cardi, Milan. Essay by Robert Evren, 2001
  • Greg Colson, Whale and Star Press. Texts by Pontus Hulten and Peter Wegner, 1999
  • Greg Colson, Lannan Museum, Lake Worth, FL. Essay by Bonnie Clearwater, 1988
  • Greg Colson: The Architecture of Distraction, Griffin Editions, Los Angeles. Interview with Genevieve Devitt, 2006
  • Greg Colson: Krannert Art Museum, University of Illinois. Essay by David Pagel, 1996

Selected books and catalogues

  • American Bricolage, Sperone Westwater, New York. Todd Alden, David Leiber and Tom Sachs, 2000
  • Mapping, Museum of Modern Art, New York. Essay by Robert Storr, 1994
  • Panza: The Legacy of a Collector, Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles. Texts by Kenneth Baker, Cornelia H. Butler, Rebecca Morse and Giuseppe Panza, 1999
  • Giuseppe Panza: Memories of a Collector, Abbeville Press, New York. By Giuseppe Panza, 2007
  • Gian Enzo Sperone: Torino, Roma, New York, Hopefulmonster Editore, Turin. Texts by Anna Minola, Maria Cristina Mundici, Francesco Poli, Maria Teresa Roberto, 2000
  • Sammlung Rosenkranz im Von der Heydt-Museum, Wuppertal, Germany. Texts by Sabine Fehlemann, Peter Frank, Pontus Hulten, 2002

Selected articles

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Greg Colson.
Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/enwiki/w/index.php?title=Greg_Colson&oldid=1155166297"