This Way Out - HIPFiSHmonthly

at KALAOutsider Artist: The Work of Anne Marie GrgichBoombox in Sky with Diamonds: a curated exhibition by Kandace Manning and Ian McMartinby steve lippicottIn recent years, the work of Northwestartist Anne Marie Grgich is more likely tobe seen in galleries of New York City, NewOrleans, Victoria, Sydney, and in Europe.However, during the next two months, over20 of her most recent collage works will befeatured at Kala in Astoria, along with thepaintings, ceramics, and carvings of 7 otherartists in the group show, Boombox In theSky With Diamonds. Joining the skate bowlcarvings and photography of Ian McMartin,the ceramics, quilt and paper craft ofPortland’s Kandace Manning, the densephantasmagoric graphics of Seattle’s PaulGasoi, the comic yet naïve painted boardsof Sweden’s Marcus Mårtenson, the photorealism of L. Miscoe’s painted birch panel’sto the intensely vibrant and playful drawingsof Soho artist Daniel Belardinelli, theexhibition offers an opportunity to see AnneMarie Grgich’s dense and multi-layeredportraits that have made her well known inthe international Outsider Art movement,consisting of self taught artists who coexistfor the most part outside the realm of theestablished art world.Her large portraits are often paradoxical innature; deceptively simple faces reveal, after closerexamination, layer upon layer of images attachedto the canvases with water based adhesive, givingthem a liquid and mysterious quality. Dark colorwashes give the paintings a luminescence.The images hover over each other obscuring andonly partially revealing what lies beneath. Akin tothe ancient practice of palimpsest where parchmentor waxed tablets were scraped to rid them of theCollage Book on display at KALAprevious text and image so that the materialcould be reused, you can see evidence of theold text behind the whitened area. In Anne’swork, previous layers bubble up thru the paintand the thickly applied adhesive to partiallyreveal hidden meanings.Shards of tissue paper rubber stamped andprinted with baby heads and doll parts, jellyfish,Victorian garb, hieroglyphics, anatomicaldrawings, alchemical symbols, third eyes, oldbicycles and butterflies. Seahorses used asears. A wallpaper motif becomes a hat. Birdfeathers morph into a dress. Often juxtaposingthe modern with the ancient, Anne uses metaphorto play with archetypes, showing “peoplefrom the inside out”.“It just so happens that I started paintingfaces. I don’t know why. Before that, I wasmaking all these creatures out of found stuff in1981-82. When I gave birth to my son, I feltI couldn’t have all this trash and junk arounda little baby. So I got really into drawingwhile I was carrying him on my back”. It wasAnne’s painted books that first brought her tothe attention of the Jamison Thomas Galleryin Portland in 1989, and subsequent showsthere catapulted her career. Old library bookswith each page becoming a canvas encrustedwith layers of paint, magic marker, and collageuntil the book swells up to four times it’s size,with thick textures, fold out pages and bold,defiant faces. “I started doing collage booksback when I was a punk rocker, using stuff Ifound, even cheese whiz! My art developedover time from poetry books to these picturebooks. I am a kind of visual poet. They are likejournals. I could keep everything in my purse,and work wherever I went. Bring some of mybooks and a box of art supplies and go travelingacross the country and to other countries.I’d go to New York and finda piece of wood on thestreet, then buy some nailpolish at Woolworth’s, thenfind something else. ThenI’d make a painting”.At the Kalas Galleryexhibit, you can see oneof her recent books. Like manyof her books, it is a work inprogress, adding new elementsovertime. “I started this bookwhen I had my hysterectomy.So its how I felt at the time. Onthis page, you can see a uterusand here a womb. I am turningit into this powerful image. I amsort of making my own icons ofmy feelings. When I feel frustratedor angry, I don’t want to act out how I feel. Iam more likely to try to transcend that by workingwith it. In a way, I am creating an edifice”.On another page, Anne has collaged the imageof a human body, upon which is layered an imageof electronic circuitry. On top is applied a tissuewith a drawing of the human nervous system. Otherlayers have images of plants and antlers. “This isall under painting. Later I will re-apply a photo ofthe body so as to bring it back. Its like I go “In &Out”. I used to organize my collage by color butnow I am really into black and white. And thenThe Masquerade Mixed Media on Canvas 20.5 x 16doing color washes on some layers.I am using theimages as form, sort of juxtaposition of meaning.Metaphor becomes an element. Like combining thenervous system with the circuitry. As I am buildingit, a lot of it is intuitive and the rest is just what Iam experiencing in life. With my piece “Flight orFight” which is in the show, it’s about a time in mylife, whether to flee or fight it out. Sometimes mywork is prophetic. I’ll do a portrait and then eventuallymeet that person! My art is whimsically puttogether. There is a lot of irony. But sometimes theyhave themes. My art has an overall theme”.cont. page 1615 oct11 hipfishmonthly.com