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LaGrange, Georgia |
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Signe & Genna Grushovenko "A good painting creates a dialogue with it's viewer, and should ultimately pose more questions than it answers." Artist Statement Resume' Biography Galleries Available Works Process FAQ Upcoming Exhibitions Blog
W h a t ' s N e w ?
"Alfresco, Family Table" 55" x 72" oil on canvas
This image is my contribution to Reaction: Visual Artists Alliance of LaGrange showing at the Cochran Gallery, E Lafayette Square, LaGrange from June 12th-July 2nd. The exhibition features new works by VAAL members created in 'reaction' to a favorite work. The work I chose was Romare Bearden's 1975 photoetching/aquatint The Family. Read more about it at www.artcouple.blogspot.com .
Upcoming & Ongoing Exhibitions
New Works now showing at Bennett Galleries, Knoxville TN Des Moines Arts Festival, Des Moines IA, June 26-28, 2009 Art Fair on the Square, Madison WI, July 11-12, 2009 Uptown Art Fair, Minneapolis MN, August 7-9, 2009 Woodland Park Art Festival, Lexington KY, August 15-16, 2009 Port Clinton Art Festival, Highland Park IL, August 22-23, 2009 Atlanta Arts Festival, Atlanta GA, September 12-13, 2009 St. James Court Art Show, Belgravia Section, Louisville KY, October 2-4, 2009 Bayou City, Houston TX, October 10-11, 2009 Kentuck Art Festival, Tuscaloosa AL, October 17-18, 2009 Telfair Art Fair, Savannah GA, November 2009 (awaiting acceptance)
Wanna hear me talk to myself? http://www.artcouple.blogspot.com
Mouse over for title & size, click for a larger view. For pricing information, please call Signe at (706)957-1516 or send her an email inquiry at admin@galleryair.com.
In most instances free shipping is available.
Education 1992-96 Fine Art Major, drawing and painting concentration; LaGrange College 1993 University of Georgia Studies Abroad Program; Cortona Italy 1991-92 Young Harris College; Young Harris GA
Selected Exhibitions
2009 Friends & Family: The Inspiration Project Artists in Residence, LaGrange GA The Inspiration Project, opening in November 16 Patton, Asheville NC Reaction: Visual Artists Alliance of LaGrange 2009 Cochran Gallery, LaGrange GA
2008 Figuratively Speaking Timothy Michael Gallery, Roswell GA Contemporary Visions: Portraits and Still lifes Figurative Allusions Escapes: Day to Night-Cityscapes and Nightscapes Miniatures and Pochades 16 Patton, Asheville NC Secret Pleasures, True Treasures Gregg Irby Fine Art, Atlanta GA Naples National Art Festival (Award of Distinction) Naples FL Building Bonds: First Annual Members Exhibition of the VAAL LaGrange Art Museum, LaGrange GA The Spaces Between (solo exhibition) Tucker Gallery, Evanston IL St James Court Art Festival (First Place, 2D category, Belgravia Section) Louisville KY
2007 Dialogue (solo exhibition) Gregg Irby Fine Art, Atlanta GA Communion (solo exhibition) 16 Patton, Asheville NC Port Clinton Art Festival (award of merit) Highland Park IL Gold Coast Art Festival (best in painting) Chicago IL Port Clinton Art Festival (merit award) Cantigny Art Festival (best in show) Buffalo Grove Invitational Art Festival (best in show) Lincolnshire Art Festival (best in painting) Suburban Chicago IL
2006 Living Southern 16 Patton, Asheville NC (solo exhibition) GAL *lery*, women in the arts Timothy Michael Gallery, Roswell GA New Works (solo exhibition) Tucker Gallery, Evanston IL Coconut Grove Arts Festival Miami FL
2005 Moonlighters Hollis Gallery, Chattanooga TN Shared Table (with husband, Gennadiy Grushovenko) The Annex at Touchstone Gallery, Washington DC Common Roots (solo exhibition) Gonchary Gallery, Kiev Ukraine Pottery and Paintings Opus One Gallery, Atlanta GA Class Portraits (solo exhibition) Artists in Residence, LaGrange GA
2004 Brookhaven Festival Brookhaven GA, Best in Show Featured Artist Gregg Irby Fine Art, Charlotte NC Columbia SC Featured Artist Hanson Gallery, Knoxville TN Featured Artist Opus One Gallery, Atlanta GA LaGrange National Biennial ~ Juried Exhibition Chattahoochee Valley Art Museum, LaGrange GA
2003 40 Years, Anniversary Exhibition Chattahoochee Valley Art Museum, LaGrange GA Wearable Art Exhibition Artists in Residence; LaGrange GA Featured Artist Opus One gallery at Tula; Atlanta GA Featured Artist Gregg Irby Fine Art; Charleston SC, Columbia SC and Atlanta GA
2002 Art With a Southern Drawl University of Mobile; Mobile AL All Media Invitational 2002 period gallery; Omaha NE Spotlight on Southern Artists The Forum at Piazza Paces; Atlanta GA
2001 The Insistence of Being Four Trees Alliance; Columbus GA Power's Crossroads Festival Newnan GA-Award of Excellence New Visions Four Trees Alliance; Columbus GA Spring Invitational Artists in Residence Healing Art Callaway Cancer Clinic; LaGrange GA Installation West Georgia Technical College; LaGrange GA
2000 Close to Home One woman show, CVAM; LaGrange GA
1999 New Works One woman show, AIR; LaGrange GA
1999-02 LaGrange Artists Guild Members Exhibition Chattahoochee Valley Art Museum Best in Show-Jan. 1999 First Place-Nov. 1999 Merit Award-2001 Merit Award-2002
1998-01 Kaleidoscope Fine Art Festival Lafayette Square; LaGrange GA Merit Award 2001 Merit Award-2000 First Place-1999 Third Place-1998 Second Place-1997
1998-01 Celebrate the Arts Callaway Gardens; Pine Mountain GA Merit Award-1999 Second Place-1998
1998 Opening Exhibition Artists in Residence
1995 Senior Thesis Exhibition Lamar Dodd Art Center; LaGrange GA
1994 Life Under Water Theater/Visual Arts Collaboration; Price Theatre; LaGrange GA LaMostra, second showing Visual Arts Gallery; UGA Art Department; Athens GA
1993 LaMostra, First showing Piazza Garibaldi; Cortona Italy
Artists in Residence LaGrange GA
Timothy Michael Gallery Roswell GA
Gregg Irby Fine Art Atlanta GA
16 Patton Asheville NC
Bennett Galleries Knoxville TN
Publications
Midwest Itineraries, cover feature, Spring 2009 Atlanta Journal & Constitution, feature article, March 31, 2008 Southern Living, August 2007, featured with husband Genna Grushovenko & AIR studio partners in the 'Georgia Living' edition Hill Rag, (Washington DC Magazine) "Spring Onions" featured on cover, September 2005 Art Business News, February 2005 New Art International, published by Book Art Press, 2005 edition Arts & Expressions Magazine, Volume 2 Issue 1, cover feature
Public Collections
Color Study Series, CNL Tower, Orlando FL city hall, Lower Lobby Courses of Study Series, West Georgia Technical College Student Center
Signe's Artist Statement Posed photographs of groups of people—families, classmates, workers, and friends—have been the major source of images for my paintings for some time. These photos appeal to me on several levels. I am drawn to them first for their shapes and patterns. I love the repetition of arms, crossed legs, hairbows, shirt stripes. The little negative shapes between people prompt an almost puzzle-like approach to the painting, an ambiguity of space. One color may represent background, legs, blouses, and faces within the same piece. The fact that many of the source images are black and white allows me to impose my own abstract color without limitations. Past the purely visual, the pictures have a tremendous emotional content. People sit or stand, usually tensed, concentrating on projecting the best of themselves. They look straight out at you. My photos are from as far back as the youth of my great-great grandparents, and from as far away as the former Soviet Union. They are cherished keepsakes of my family and discarded memories found at yard sales, flea markets, and in abandoned homes. No matter from what generation or country, be they of ancestors, strangers, or friends, the pictures describe the same complex relationships, the same sense of pride. I am an avid admirer of the American artists Romare Bearden, Jim Dine, Alex Katz, Fairfield Porter, and Milton Avery. I strive through my own paintings to capture what is, in my opinion, so special about theirs...the sublime balance between the emotionality of the subject and the abstract nature of their surface, color, line, and brushwork. My ultimate goal is to produce a figurative painting that would be equally powerful were it purely nonrepresentational. Recently, my works have been focused mainly on images of the South. Having been born in Michigan and coming to the small town South as a young child, I developed a fascination with its history perhaps natural to a “transplanted Yankee”. The photos I have discovered of early life in North and South Carolina, Georgia, Virginia, Louisiana, and their other neighbor states all contain the same quality that never fails to touch me…the triumph of strength over adversity. For the past 9+ years, my husband Genna has been executing my underpaintings. His contribution to the finished works has grown to the point where I consider them 'ours' instead of 'mine only'. If you're interested in how this process takes place, read on...
Partners in both life and art, Genna and I have been collaborating for nearly ten years. Our process begins when Genna creates rich, tonal underpaintings on supports of primed linen, canvas, or Masonite. The underpaintings start with a layer of acrylic color, sometime sprayed, sometimes rolled, sometimes brushed. Once the acrylic layer is dry, he applies small amounts of oil pigment mixed with copious amounts of mineral spirits. The colors are applied wetly with house paint brushes with the canvas standing. The canvas is then rotated and more layers are applied and allowed to run into one another. When satisfied with the design and palette of each individual piece, Genna lays it on its back and allows it to dry. When I am ready to paint, I go to my supply of underpainted supports and select one. I then choose an image from my collection of vintage photos that will mesh well with the style and palette of the underpainting. Using the photo as reference, I execute a drawing in oil pastel and complete the painting in oil. Collaborating with Genna has influenced my work in many ways, pushing me to work with textures and colors I would have never chosen for myself. The final results of our art partnership are multi-layered paintings with deep surfaces, crisp at first glance but rewarding the careful viewer with an undercurrent of complex tonality and colorplay. I am grateful to Genna for bringing to my work the same sweet richness he’s brought to my life. ~Signe
I am a passionate collector of antique and vintage photographs. These photos call to me through their quirky compositions, their dramatic high-contrast values, their shapes, the relationships between their figures, the body language of their inhabitants. By leaving the faces devoid of detail, I hope to heighten the viewers’ interest in these other qualities and force them to look away from the face to cull the meaning of the work. I believe that a good painting creates a dialogue with it's viewer, and in the end should pose more questions than it answers. My images are meant to be more icons than portraits. On a more practical level, my painting style relies heavily on the balancing of large, flat shapes and blocky “panes” of color. The small details that would be necessary to give a face its features would detract from the simple, clean style of the paintings.
Signe was born Kerry Signe Cornell in Michigan in 1974. She spent her first five years in the small town of Houghton Lake until she moved with her family to the equally small town of Washington, Georgia in 1979. Always drawn to the creative outlet of drawing and painting, art was a natural choice for a major upon entering college at Young Harris in the even smaller town of Young Harris, Georgia in 1991. After one year at Young Harris, Signe transferred to the big city to attend LaGrange College. After four years of art study at L.C., Signe opened Gallery 155 in Pine Mountain. A short lived venture, Gallery 155 closed it’s doors in August of 1998. The next month, Artists in Residence gallery opened with Signe as one of it’s founding members. Married to fellow gallery partner and potter Gennadiy Grushovenko in 1999, Signe teaches and paints full time at Artists in Residence and is proud to show her works with successful galleries in Atlanta, Knoxville, Chicago, and Asheville. Over the past five years, Signe has been honored with a number of awards at shows and festivals throughout the southeast and has been featured at the Period Gallery in Omaha, Nebraska, the LaGrange National Biennial, and at the Art With a Southern Drawl exhibition at the University of Mobile, Alabama. Her recent exhibitions include solo features at the Tucker Gallery in Evanston IL & Gonchary Gallery in Kiev, Ukraine.
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Artists in Residence 300 South Greenwood Street, LaGrange GA 30240 (706)885-9900 phone and fax email admin@galleryair.com Hours of operation: Most weekdays 11am-3pm. To confirm hours or make an appointment, call (706)957-1516 |
