MARY WASHINGTON COLLEGE GALLERY TO FEATURE STEVE GRIFFIN RETROSPECTIVE, SEPT. 29-NOV. 5

Fredericksburg, Va. --A retrospective exhibition of artist

Steve Griffin's work will be held in the duPont Gallery of the Mary Washington College Galleries from Sept. 29 through Nov. 5. The 34 works of art will trace Griffin's artistic journey from his undergraduate days at the University of

South Dakota in the late 1960s to his present position as associate professor of art at Mary Washington College--27 years of work. The exhibition is free and open to the public. DuPont Gallery will be open Monday, Wednesday and Friday from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. and on weekends from 1 to 4 p.m. A reception, which also is open to the public, will be held from 5 to 7 p.m. on Sept. 29. Both the exhibition and a videotape of the opening reception will be available to computer users on the Internet.

The show includes oil paintings, watercolors, collages, photography, and work using unusual materials and techniques, including masonite and a giant camera. The exhibition chronicles Griffin's evolution over the years from painting the realistic world of animals, people, and objects, to his completely abstract work during the last 15 years. Griffin hopes the exhibit will reveal the artistic process involved in moving from one form of expression to another.

Griffin's large acrylic and oil paintings of the early 1970s, such as a cat sitting on a piano bench before a windowsill full of plants, gradually gave way to watercolors and abstract images. "My ideas were running faster than the process," Griffin said of his decision to switch from oil to watercolors.

Representative pieces from several series of Griffin's work are included in the exhibition. Pieces from his "Bobbers" series, begun in the late 70s, are transitional works between the realistic and abstract phases of his career. Pieces from his "Homage to Jon Gnagy Series," pay tribute to a TV artist from Griffin's youth with basic shapes arranged in novel ways, while his "Homage to George Jetson" series consists of formal art deco pictures.

In the mid-to-late 80s Griffin felt the urge to move to a larger scale, and began working in masonite, ("a material easy to abuse," he explains,) a series of works from which he selected four pieces for the exhibition. Griffin then went on to do a series of paper collages with scraps left from years of teaching lithography and printmaking to students. Three collages are on display.

Photographic images that have been manipulated by scraping and heating the negatives, and also photographs with no images at all, reflect Griffin's continual fascination with photography as a medium that goes beyond photographs. In a process some would call a photograph and some would call a painting, Griffin makes abstract swirls on a negative with emulsion chemicals and photographs them, in a sort of photo-painting hybrid.

In 1990 and 1991, a grant from Mary Washington College allowed Griffin the chance to travel to New York City to use a giant Polaroid camera and create photo collages of objects he brought along, like marbles, shaving cream, and rubber placemats. Three works are exhibited from this trip.

The duPont Gallery is in duPont Hall on College Avenue at Thornton Street. Free parking designated for gallery visitors is available in the lot across College Avenue at Thornton Street. For information call 540/654-1013.

Contact: Margaret L. Mock, 540/654-1055

Steve Griffin Retrospective
Mary Washington College Galleries
Fredericksburg, VA 22401
URL:http://people.umw.edu/~ernie/sg/real-pressrelease.html

For more information, email Ernie Ackerman at ernie@mwc.edu

Return to Home Page for Steve Griffin Retrospective URL: http://people.umw.edu/~ernie/sgexhibit.html

Last Update: Wednesday, September 27, 1995