(Above: Detail from Adam Grosowsky’s large painting, Caravan)
By Randi Bjornstad
Many of Adam Grosowsky’s paintings are characterized by bold colors and strong figures
Whatever the weather outside, the color inside the Karin Clarke Gallery in a show that will close out 2020 and bring in 2021 is bold, riotous, and striking. The exhibit, featuring the work of one of the gallery’s represented artists, Adam Grosowsky and is titled No Direction Home.
Many of the paintings are autobiographical, Grosowsky said, reflecting his view of societal challenges as well as personal experiences during the past year, encompassing “themes of alienation, new beginnings, and life’s balancing act.”
The show at the Karin Clarke Gallery features this portrait, titled Modigliani
Referring to one painting of a child learning to walk, “You are always a kid walking down the path of life,” Grosowsky said. “People fall down and then they get up.”
The paintings in this show center largely on human figures portrayed in a variety of activities and environments. But these pieces are rendered less precisely, leaving more room for interpretation, than many that have appeared in previous Grosowsky exhibits.
In addition to his own painting career, Grosowsky also taught art for 30 years at Lane Community College.
In an earlier interview with Eugene Scene, he reflected on his natural entree into the world of art, beginning with his birth into an artistic family in Carbondale, Ill., which he described as “a little college town like Eugene.” His father taught in the Design Department at Southern Illinois University with architect Buckminster Fuller, and his mother taught art, drawing, and painting at a local community college.
His own forays into artistic impression apparently began very early.
“After my mom died, my sister sent me a giant box of 50 lbs. of drawings I had done — lots of spaceships and submarines and smelling of magic marker,” he recalled. “But when I was a kid, I didn’t want to be getting art supplies all the time, I wanted a toy car or a model (kit) of a Spitfire airplane.”
Adam Grosowsky: No Direction Home
When: Through Jan. 16, but the gallery will be closed Dec. 25 through Jan. 2
Where: Karin Clarke Gallery, 760 Willamette St., Eugene
Gallery hours: Noon to 5:30 p.m. Wednesday through Friday and 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. on Saturday
Information: 541-684-7963, karinclarkegallery.com
Girl Looking at Fish is representative of artist Adam Grosowsky’s way of interpreting people within sometimes unpredictable environments.
