Meet Gabriele Grones | Artist

We had the good fortune of connecting with Gabriele Grones and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Gabriele, how does your business help the community?
As an artist I have often asked myself about the purpose of art. Despite the role of art and artists has changed over the centuries, and is different in each society, I think there is a common ground in the creation of artifacts: they are made to establish the parameters through which we relate to reality. The Paleolithic cave paintings were ritual images that had a specific meaning for their communities, as well as the religious altarpieces from the Middle Ages or a Chinese terracotta vase. Through my work my aim is to explore the aggregating role of art, capable of reuniting communities around symbolic values. Art highlights the complexity of our relationship with reality and the richness of visions that form our cultural identities.

Let’s talk shop? Tell us more about your career, what can you share with our community?
I am a painter and in my artistic research I am interested in the relationship that we establish with reality through an open dialogue with the expressive codes of art history. I usually create series of paintings in oil on canvas, exploring each time a specific theme. For example, recent series concern the symbology behind the representation of plants and natural details. Other groups of paintings concentrate on diverse topics, such as portraits and their historical references, or the iconography of still lives. The journey from being a young student to a professional artist has not always been easy. Sometimes it was hard to find the right motivations or the right key to develop a research, keeping it fresh and innovative. There were some moments of crisis but they are part of the process. Crisis comes from a Greek word that means “to choose”, “to discern”. I overcame these challenges considering the difficulty as an opportunity to evaluate how to proceed in order to improve my work. This is the most important lesson I learned and it allowed me to have a clearer vision of my practice and its purposes: highlighting the complexity of human cultures, the richness of visual traditions and the interweaving of paths. Painting is a job—not only a passion—that requires constant dedication and study.

Any places to eat or things to do that you can share with our readers? If they have a friend visiting town, what are some spots they could take them to?
For me, moving to NYC has been one of the best choices of my life. Here I find constant inspirations for my work not only thanks to the amazing art galleries and art collections, but also for the city itself, a place of cultural connections from all over the world. The city is full of opportunities, for my art researches I often visit the museums, especially The Met, the Frick Collection, the MoMA and the Brooklyn Museum, just to mention a few of them. They are a must-see, especially for people interested in art, but not only. Just wandering around the exhibition rooms and watching the masters of the past gives you a new energy. Another very special place in Manhattan is the Morgan Library, it is not only a library but also a museum that organizes precious temporary exhibitions. What I love about NYC is also the opportunity to be in touch with nature. Prospect Park is my favorite, it is close to where I live and it is just next to the wonderful Brooklyn Botanic Garden. The High Line is another park where I like to go when visiting the art galleries in Chelsea and of course, a gallery tour is a very nice experience to do in the city, exploring many neighborhoods, like Tribeca or the Lower East Side. For a night dedicated to classical music the amazing Carnegie Hall is an incredible experience but I would also recommend the open air New York Philharmonic concerts in many city parks throughout the summer.

The Shoutout series is all about recognizing that our success and where we are in life is at least somewhat thanks to the efforts, support, mentorship, love and encouragement of others. So is there someone that you want to dedicate your shoutout to?
I have always wanted to be an artist and every choice I have made in my life has been in that direction. If I think back at my childhood I always remember myself drawing or painting. My father was a very good painter and he has been very important to me. He would have loved to be an artist and when I expressed my desire to follow an artistic path he always supported me, like all my family did. My wife is also an artist and she is a constant and fundamental support. Growing up, there were moments that marked my educational path—like a visit to the Alte Pinakothek in Munich, Germany, with my father, when I was thirteen—as well as important professional steps such as being selected among the shortlisted artists for the BP Portrait Award at the National Portrait Gallery in London in 2008, when I still was a student at the Academy of Fine Arts in Venice, Italy. My early experiences as a professional artist showed me how I could evolve a passion into a real job. The mentorships of my teachers and the support of gallerists, colleagues and art curators helped me to build a career that is constantly developing. We all are the result of social interactions and relations. In my artistic research I often analyze the importance of networks and connections, through the installation of paintings visually bound to each other in order to evoke the pathways of influences and common grounds that build and shape our cultures.

Website: https://gabrielegrones.com/

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/gabrielegrones/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/gabriele.grones/

Image Credits
Courtesy the artist and Boccanera Gallery, Trento/Milan