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CHAD GROHMAN: UP TO NOW

Exhibition dates: April 1 – May 9, 2020

 

A solo exhibition by Buffalo-area artist and RIT professor of illustration, Chad Grohman. Up To Now is a retrospective exhibition which highlights Chad's interest in themes ranging
from his reverence for the natural world, his family, music,
design, and more. The exhibition will include paintings,
sculpture, and mixed media work that showcase Chad's
career as an artist and illustrator, "up to now".

​



Artwork copyright is retained by Chad Grohman.

 

Artist Statement

"I have been an illustrator for about 30 years. More than half of that work
has been in digital media, producing thousands of images bought and paid
for by a variety of clients around the country and into Europe and Asia.

 

In 2008, at a time when I was working heavily in Adobe Illustrator, I went to graduate school to get back to traditional media. The program was designed for working illustrators and encouraged us to leave our artistic comfort zones. With the influence of faculty and my fellow students I did so and haven’t seen artistic comfort since. This has lead to a variety of approaches to art, adding
to the techniques I was already exploring in the workplace and galleries.

 

The artwork presented in the show Up to Now is a sample of the variety
of artistic approaches I have made personally suitable. I explore these approaches while freelancing illustration and in gallery work. Using these experiences, I teach illustration at Rochester Institute of Technology in
both traditional and digital media. Just like graduate school, and of course undergraduate studies, academia is a field rich with creativity that provides more and more visual and conceptual exploration.

 

What is left out of the show is the digital work I have spent so many years making. However, I have included some posters that were created digitally because they are illustration originals in their own right. The first print is
the original, not the actual art itself. That is the nature of illustration.

 

I am both an illustrator and a gallery painter. Mostly I am a painter in the studio. Where it goes is less important than pushing for artistic discovery in
an unending search for visual contentment. Which by some artistic definition is unattainable. That’s part of the passion for making pictures. Discontent drives this show. I hope that you enjoy the work. —Chad Grohman.

 

Chad's Exhibition History

at Main Street Arts

 

Chad has been included in several exhibitions at Main Street Arts—including one of our very first exhibitions in 2013.

 

2019, From The Dirt to The Skies

2018, Cultivate

2017, Sacred Curiosities

2016, Fifty Landscapes

2015, Small Works

2014, Paintings by Chad Grohman

2013, Landscape: Subject and Stimuli

On tattoos and tattooing

"I love tattoos and tattoo art and asked my friend Adam Francey for an apprenticeship a while back. He agreed and taught me before he moved to Love Hate in Rochester. He connected me with Dustin Lovell at Divine Machine Tattoo in Buffalo and that connection got me in there. I was at Divine Machine on and off about 3 years.
It was amazing and I learned so much from everyone there. I learned a lot about
art and people there."

On Buddhism

"Buddhism has been in my work since college in 1992. It is interwoven in paintings and illustration. I've turned away freelance jobs that promoted killing to the mass market and I've painted doctrinal concepts and the Buddha's teachings. I've made a lot of very obvious Buddhist art and a lot of art that has major influence from the teachings. Especially the 10 realms of existence; specifically the animal realm and how we are connected to it and often dwell in it."

 

On the Fillmore posters

 

"A freelancer friend introduced me to the art director at
The Fillmore and I have worked with them a long time since. They have given me some of my favorite jobs and often given me the most artistic freedom. It was difficult to get going with them but once we synced up it was a great match for a long time. I still work for them now and then."

 

 

Below are several sketches from Chad's sketchbooks for posters he has worked on over the years. View more of Chad's sketchbooks here.

 

Want to see it again?

 

Scroll up to go back through the exhibition.

Or go back to the beginning here.

 

 

Be sure to check out the second floor exhibition
running at the same time as Up To Now:

 

ON THE SECOND FLOOR

Field Trip Visions
Field Trip Visions is an exhibition
by four artist/educators,
Zanne Brunner, Judy Gohringer,
Courtney Gruttadauria and
Nancy Valle. They have embarked
on a creative journey together
to share their favorite landscapes
 both familiar and new.

 

 

GO BACK TO ALL INTERACTIVE EXHIBITIONS >

Want to see it again?

 

Scroll up to go back through the exhibition.

Or go back to the beginning here.

 

 

Be sure to check out the second floor exhibition
running at the same time as Up To Now:

 

ON THE SECOND FLOOR

Field Trip Visions
Field Trip Visions is an exhibition
by four artist/educators,
Zanne Brunner, Judy Gohringer,
Courtney Gruttadauria and
Nancy Valle. They have embarked
on a creative journey together
to share their favorite landscapes
 both familiar and new.

 

 

GO BACK TO ALL INTERACTIVE EXHIBITIONS >

Want to see it again?

 

Scroll up to go back through the exhibition.

Or go back to the beginning here.

 

 

Be sure to check out the second floor exhibition
running at the same time as Up To Now:

 

ON THE SECOND FLOOR

Field Trip Visions
Field Trip Visions is an exhibition
by four artist/educators,
Zanne Brunner, Judy Gohringer,
Courtney Gruttadauria and
Nancy Valle. They have embarked
on a creative journey together
to share their favorite landscapes
 both familiar and new.

 

 

GO BACK TO ALL INTERACTIVE EXHIBITIONS >

Want to see it again?

 

Scroll up to go back through the exhibition.

Or go back to the beginning here.

 

 

Be sure to check out the second floor exhibition
running at the same time as Up To Now:

 

ON THE SECOND FLOOR

Field Trip Visions
Field Trip Visions is an exhibition
by four artist/educators,
Zanne Brunner, Judy Gohringer,
Courtney Gruttadauria and
Nancy Valle. They have embarked
on a creative journey together
to share their favorite landscapes
 both familiar and new.

 

 

GO BACK TO ALL INTERACTIVE EXHIBITIONS >

Want to see it again?

 

Scroll up to go back through the exhibition.

Or go back to the beginning here.

 

 

Be sure to check out the second floor exhibition
running at the same time as Up To Now:

 

ON THE SECOND FLOOR

Field Trip Visions
Field Trip Visions is an exhibition
by four artist/educators,
Zanne Brunner, Judy Gohringer,
Courtney Gruttadauria and
Nancy Valle. They have embarked
on a creative journey together
to share their favorite landscapes
 both familiar and new.

 

 

GO BACK TO ALL INTERACTIVE EXHIBITIONS >