Tom DeGroot
"If you set your expectations low enough, you
will always be pleasantly surprised" - S.A.
Stolnack
Virtual
reality tour of my studio, many thanks to Bradford Bohonus. You
can zoom in and out by using the + and - keys at the bottom left. Be
sure to check out his other VR's on the site, this guy has been BUSY!
July 2008
I've been awarded a
GAP
Grant from Artist Trust. That's "Grant for Artist Projects",
and it's a nice honor, their standards are very high.
I plan to make much needed safety improvements at my studio.
Thank you Artist Trust!
June 2008
Angkor, 22 x 22 at Costello Childs Contemporary
May 2008
Thanks all for a successful
show, it looked great,
the critics thought so too. . . . .
April 2008
Installation view of my show at
Traver Gallery in Tacoma.
The opening was great fun, thanks to all those who made it down to TTown.
You can see all the work
online here. Click on the image above for a larger view.
Jeffery Simmons at
Kucera.
March 2008
My next
show around the northwest is a month away at
Traver Gallery's Tacoma location, it opens April
12. Details from the show. . . .
Nice work
by
Susan Dory at Winston Wachter Fine Art, thick tactile layers of acrylic.
February 2008
I'm part of Substance and
Color, a show with
three other painters at
Costello/Childs Contemporary in Phoenix, below are two from the show.
Orchard of Returns and Foundling, both 22 x 22
My work has been selected
for a Merit Award in the
2008 Poncho Art Auction. Poncho gives huge money to Northwest arts
organizations.
December 2007
Spring Rain, 16 x 16, and detail
OPEN STUDIO
- For the Ballard Art Walk, I'm opening my studio up December 8, 6 - 9
PM. Come on by to chat, eat, sip, and view progress towards
my April show at Traver Gallery's Tacoma location.
Directions here.
November 2007
There's a great show by
Juan Alonso at Francine Seders
Gallery. Though these are executed on thoroughly two
dimensional clayboard in only greys and blacks, they seemed miles
deep. I love the gamut of textures in each piece. From the
undulating shapes in ink and steely graphite, to incidental texture, to
hairline calligraphic marks, the range of accumulated texture is
richly satisfying. I lost myself in this show.
Also, my friend
Donald
Cole is showing at ArtXchange. Armed with strong color and abraded
textures, he riffs on Southeast Asian graffitti and icons.
He's a "painter's painter" and delivers a very savory stew.
October 2007
"Coriolis" made it into a
Seattle Times story in the Sunday rotogravure section. Thanks for
all those emails!
July 2007
Just returned from my opening at
SOPA Fine Arts in Kelowna, British Columbia, a good turnout and a fun
trip, hope to have pics to post soon. Thanks to Deborah,
Adrienne and Karla for a great show.
Get down and see an amazing show
at
Lawrimore Project.
The sculpture of Chris Bruch (say brew), combines simple
materials like paper, plywood, wood strips, and even steel strapping in
modular processes to arrive at economical and elegant forms.
The work has a definite presence, a stillness. Jen Graves in her review in The Stranger goes on and on about feminism and
politics, but I think his mature work is about how simple,
minimal forms and exquisite craft can deliver a quiet punch.
Please, GO SEE!
Its interesting to contrast Bruch's work with that of Tara Donovan at Kucera Gallery. She has a national reputation, and also accumulates common materials such as toothpicks, rubber bands, paper plates in unexpected forms. I like it, I'm surprised by what she makes of it, but It lacks the presence that Bruch's work has. His work seems mutely alive, hers, though inventive, just seems clever by comparison.
I should have posted this in
June, but I'd like to give notice to
Kate Sweeney at
Gallery 110. She layers the circle in all its variety - grids
and nests of discs, dots and ellipses - to arrive at evolving systems of
gorgeous complexity.
June 2007
An installation shot from Common Threads at Fresh Paint Art Advisors in Culver City, CA. Pictured are Queen Harvest and Dial.
Looking
ahead, I'll have a show at SOPA
Fine Arts in British Columbia, opening July 5.
A couple
shows just opened that I thought were pretty damned good. At
James Harris Gallery Shaun
O'Dell has some amazing drawings, and Claude Zervas has some
deceptively simple digital prints of lumber in the front office space that I
thougt were pretty cool.
And my
friend Patricia Hagen has a show
at Punch Gallery . If
you've followed her work, well, those pesky floating cells and body fruit
have finally come to tranquil rest at the bottom of the frame, leaving me
with a blissful contented glow. And they've materialized in 3D
too! Unfortunately neither of the web sites are updated with the
current show, so you'll have to get down there to see it. Only
open Friday-Sunday, Noon-5pm, or by appointment.
May 2007
My work is now available in
Southern California at Fresh
Paint Art Advisors in Culver City.
I've updated my
gallery page with the new work.
In "Life Dot Dot Dot", a show
opening at
Artisans On Taylor in Port Townsend with three other artists, I
introduce a body of work I've been developing over the last year.
The random patterns of dots could reference constellations, diagrams,
natural clusters, or streams of data, and though the forms are different
than my resin-on-cardboard stripes, it's still about materials, process, and
pattern. I may also have been influenced by all the ambient electronica I
listen to, and the possibly excessive levels of resin fumes in my studio.
(see March for image)
Exhibiting their own dots will be Counsel Langley, Zach Hixson, and my good friend Eric Olson.
Dime, 16 x 16, resin on wire
mesh, and detail
The show is also an opportunity to see the work of three artists chosen for
Visual Codec's "One Shot", a locally published book featuring
work by 100 regional artists selected in a blind jury process. Eric,
Counsel, and I are in the book, and it's an honor to appear there, as the
jurors and artists include many of the Northwest's heavyweights. The book
will be available starting April 28th, and "Memo" , my contribution,
will be in Life Dot Dot Dot.
Artisans on Taylor, open every day from 11-6, is in the heart of beautiful
old redbrick Port Townsend, right on Puget Sound. The show runs all of May
and June, and there is an opening reception Saturday, May 5, 5-8 PM,. All
the info you need is on their web site (see link above). If you'd like a
postcard, drop me a reply from my "contact" page with your street address.
OK, ride a boat, spend the day, DOT your eyes, I hope to see you there
-Tom
April, March, 2007
. . . .
February 2007
DO NOT MISS the show of the
Leipzig painters at the Frye Museum.
It's realism, but loaded with bleak atmospherics, and in the case
of Neo Rauch, fear, grotesques and wit. Amazing! Could
Seattle have a group of artists like this?
Belatedly I saw
Drake
Deknatel's show at Catherine Person Fine Art, which just closed
What a great painter Drake was. I think in his best work the forms
were partially obscured, integrated into the overall surface in a way
that makes it hard to see how the painting worked, but there's no doubt it
worked.
January 2007
I haven't been out in the
galleries much, so I don't really know what is worth seeing right now, BUT
here are the first new images I've posted in about 6 months.
Here is the first image of a new body of work which I've been developing for
about a year.
Threshold, resin on wire mesh, 11 x 11
. . . . and I'm still working on the cardboard series as well.
Five Ice, resin and paint on cardboard, 20 x 48, at Costello/Childs Contemporary.
December 2006
I've been holed up in my studio,
working out the kinks in some new stuff. Heard that before? Its
because its what I've been doing for 6 months now!
BUT, there is this!
Alan Merrihew has released a CD,
Angels at Play, and my art is on the cover! Alan is an
old friend, we used to play music together, but he was better than me and
stuck with it. Beautiful tunes and saxophone on this, check it out, the release party will even be at Jazz Alley.
Top drawer baby!
The image is of one of my acrylic on Tyvek works of about 5 years ago.
November 2006
I'm very pleased to now be
represented in Phoenix by Costello/Childs
Contemporary. Michael and Daryl opened their own gallery
after extensive experience in the Arizona gallery scene, and have a stellar
list of artists on their roster. Stop by if you're in the area.
August, September, October 2006
I've been holed up in my studio,
working out the kinks in some new stuff.
A painting (aforesaid new stuff)
will be in Expressions Northwest, at
Northwind
Arts Center in Port Townsend, October6 - October 29.
July 2006
Well, I survived leading
the workshop, I believe folks had a good time, though the fumes were an
issue. If not for the great weather allowing folks to work outside, it
would have been pretty much intolerable in the room. It's great
to see folks just attack a medium, they were really fearless, I have enough
ideas to last me a couple of decades!
In
conjunction with the workshop I'm leading at
Pratt Arts Center, I'm giving a presentation Friday
night, July 14 at 6 pm (wine
and cheee-eez, com'n get it!). Also I'm hanging a small show in the front
lobby of studio fragments and ephemera, studies, great paintings, and dead
ends, none of which have been shown previously. Some of it may seem small
and insignificant, but they're all valuable to me as markers of where I went
and could be headed.
I'm represented in Canada
by Sopa Fine Arts, a new and
beautiful gallery in Kelowna, British Columbia, I have work in
their show 'Border Crossings' opening Thursday July 6th.
June 2006
My Zen
teacher Genki Takabayashi's
show at my studio. He's
now retired (I think I pushed him over the edge) in Montana, but I
cannot overstate this guy's influence on my life, in the deepest way
possible. He's the most natural person I have ever known.
May 2006
This was my contribution to
the Pratt Art Auction, Behalf, 36 x 15, 2006. This is my
favorite of the local auctions, great fun and food, and for once it wasn't
pouring.
MUST SEE! My favorite
Seattle artist.
John
Grade (say GRAH - day) is showing at Davidson Contemporary.
He harnesses world class fabrication skills and non-stop imagination to an
audacious vision. Been to Maya Lin's show at the
Henry? I think he's that good. Opens Thursday, May 11th.
March, April 2006
My friend
Eric Olson is showing at Viveza Gallery. His work is ultra clean
and cool in temperament; he's mining a very pure form of serialism, and the
finish is flawless. If I get up close though, I can sense the
human touch of the artist, how carefully he squeezed the dot out of the
tube, their almost dangerous points, the slight misses in placement, its
like steel with a heart. Nice gallery too, you may have missed it,
check it out.
February 2006
I've been asked to lead a
resin workshop at Pratt Fine Arts Center.
January 2006
a quick panorama of the main room, click for enlarged view
"Tom
DeGroot is not true to his materials. He makes corrugated cardboard look
like porcelain, spray paint and resin pooling in colored layers along
irregular surfaces. There's a cool urban edge to his timeless elegance, and
that's what gives it focus.
His work is about desire. No matter how long you look at it, it slides away
from you."
-- Regina Hackett, Seattle Post Intelligencer
How 'bout that "cool urban edge" and "timeless elegance", huh? What
I've been trying to say all along. . . .
This is Augur, 26 x 27 item in the
show I made from an old window shade, now in the collection of Dee &
Bill Endelman.
Images of the complete show are
here.
Thanks to all who came to
the opening, they had to brave brutal downpours and traffic to get to the
gallery. I had a great time, I like being the focus for about 3 hours
once every 12 - 18 months, and then that's enough, thanks.
My solo show
opens at William Traver Gallery in Seattle, January 5, 5 - 8 pm.
"Outside the Square, Tom DeGroot's messy stripe paintings on corrugated cardboard are unaccountably
silky at William Traver Gallery . . ."
-- Regina Hackett, Seattle Post Intelligencer
Thanks Regina!
December 2005
Check out
Lisa Buchanan
at Davidson Contemporary. Sophisticated, inventive
abstraction using a spare vocabulary. This work is painted with
the touch and precision of realism, but having no recognizable forms,
occupies a kind of nether state. Go see!
November 2005
Seattle art lost an icon, Drake
Deknatel died on Friday the 18th. I didn't know Drake well, I only
talked to him a few times, but he was always encouraging and a hell of a
painter.
Best of 1st Thursday goes to my
gallery for
Eric Nelsen.
These are dense assemblages of ceramic forms, referencing myth, the giants
of art, and the artist's personal symbols. The forms are meticulously
executed to an almost feverish precision, without being slick; they
have a kind of hyper-reality, and it adds up to a dense metaphor of life's
journey.
At
Northwind Arts Center
in Port Townsend is an exhibit of Nöle
Giulini. I would call it the mysterious life that inhabits
"dead" forms. The images on the site are poor, best to visit her
personal site. Worth the trip!
October 2005
September 2005
Of the 1st
Thursday openings I saw, the standout has to be
Leo Saul Berk at Howard House.
I've always loved lamination effects ala plywood, and here it is.
August 2005
Open
Studio
July 2005
June 2005
so damn busy, working on the
studio, I hope to have an open studio on Saturday, August 6, gotta run. . .
. .
May 2005
Belatedly I'd like to
mention how much I liked
Ellen Ziegler at
4Culture. The absolute delicacy and precision of those tiny holes,
burned.
April 2005
Highlighted shows this month in Seattle:
My friend Patricia
Hagen is at at Bryan Ohno thru May 28. Covering the last 2-3
years, this exhibit effectively shows the transition this artist is making,
from a rambunctious style with crowded painterly forms, to a very quiet,
open and finely tuned space, but with the same basic vocabulary of
shapes and color. One of my favorite painters in town, and
challenging. GET THERE!
Margie Livingston at Greg Kucera Gallery, paints forms inspired by trees, but they end up looking like the bones of space.
March 2005
I'm working to improve my ventilation system so
my studio mates have an easier time of it. This I know, the bigger the
fan, the more they like me.
March shows in Seattle I recommend:
Joseph
Goldberg at Greg Kucera. A painter's painter, I especially like
his minimalist work, like
this
and this,
but these images don't show the encaustic surface, lustrous and creamy, somehow
thin and deep at the same time.
Also, in the back room, Gregory Kucera (no relation) has digital prints,
cutouts and sculptures that though derived from video are very
involved with materials.
Katina Huston at Brian Ohno: I love these ink drawings of the shadows of bicycles. The compositions can be off kilter, unexpected, and the variation in tone, edge and mass produces a "now it is, now it isn't, or is it?" quality. You wouldn't think bicycles could be mysterious, would you?
Eric Olson at 4Culture: At first glance these can seem to be almost machine made (which I like anyway), but up close its apparent that each dot was very carefully applied by a steady, patient hand. These are on a softly glowing, satin aluminum ground, non-stop elegance and cool.
February 2005
Feb 15, I actually
poured resin in my new studio,
it's good to finally reach this point.
Not much new happening right now, continuing to pour,
and work on the new studio.
In openings around town, the high
spot was at Greg Kucera
Gallery where Gregory Kucera (no relation) has digital prints, cutouts
and sculptures derived from video. Sounds weird, but despite all the
conceptual stuff in the work, they end up being streamlined, terse forms,
very much about the materials and processes of their making.
January 2005
Moved into a new studio in the Ballard area of
Seattle, in the basement of Salty Dog Studios.
December 2004
My show FALLS, at
William Traver
Gallery in Tacoma closed December 3.
Thanks to Bill Traver, Greg and Julie at the gallery, Tony for a great
installation, and all the other staff at WTG. And thanks so much
to all of you who came down to the opening, or to the show at
other times, and of course special thanks to all those who purchased work. There are some installation shots
here.
The
paintings and sculpture of
Mark
Bennion are at the Tacoma gallery in December. I love this
artist's aesthetic; austere and elemental with a quiet power.
Must see!
December
recommendations:
Mark Bennion at William Traver (Tacoma)
Patricia Hagen and Katina Huston at Bryan Ohno.
(The amazing) John Grade and Dion Zwirner at Davidson
Gallery.
Looking for a new studio location, I hope to find something in
Fremont/Ballard Our converted garage has been great, but as I
anticipate making larger work, it seems smaller and smaller.
November 2004
FALLS opens at
William Traver
Gallery in Tacoma. Thanks to patrons Scott &
Ruth Wilson of Issaquah, who purchased River, and have
donated it to the collection of Tacoma Art Museum.
FRESH PAINT opens at WTG in Seattle
My painting Multnomah has been
acquired by the King County Portable Works Collection.
October 2004
New site
launched.