Gregory Rick
IN THE ARTIST’S WORDS:
“I see my work as History Painting, promoting the obscure, the forgotten and the common knowledge. My life has been full of tribulations, I look at them as initiations. For every hardship I endured my art has grown with me. My father went to prison when I was 8 for murder. Although losing my dad was rough, him giving me two books, one on history and one on art, started my infatuation with both and serves as a means of connection with my pops. Similarly, art was a bastion of light after I returned from Iraq and help me deal with my guilt about the war.
This work comes from my personal experience but is not entirely personal. I tell stories that reflect my story, but they are not totally personal and are still in dialogue with the wider world. Where myth gives voice to the underbelly, the lumpen in tandem displaying the familiar and grandiose. My work tethers together seemingly opposing ideas as I teeter between the personal, the historical and the political. I am painting on a shaky historical line cemented in humility and conviction. I occupy my pictures with characters who serve as archetypes in conjunction with memory and self- exploration, reflecting on the absurdness and monumentality of history.”
— Gregory Rick
Exhibitions with HAIR+NAILS:
Solo shows:
Active Shooter at Our Baptism // 11.14.24 – 1.5.25 // H+N NYC
Coming Home // 6.17.23 – 7.23.23 // H+N MPLS
The DANCING Plague // 2021 // H+N MPLS
Group shows:
Freshly For You / H+N NYC Inaugural Group Show / Sept. 2024
Felix LA 2024
The Human Scale / H+N Curated Group Show (Rochester Art Center / 2021
RIGHT NOW // Winter Group Show // Dec. 1st, 2020 – Jan. 2021 // H+N MPLS
