Barbara Grad

Barbara Grad
Artist Barbara Grad, in 2017, in her studio.
Grad in 2017
Born1950
Chicago, Illinois, US
EducationSchool of the Art Institute of Chicago
Known forPainting, Drawing, Printmaking, Artist books
StyleOrganic abstraction
WebsiteBarbara Grad

Barbara Grad (born 1950) is an American artist and educator, known for abstract, fractured landscape paintings, which combine organic and geometric forms, colliding planes and patterns, and multiple perspectives.[1][2] Her work's themes include the instability of experience, the ephemerality of nature, and the complexity of navigating cultural environments in flux.[3][4] While best known as a painter, Grad also produces drawings, prints, mixed-media works and artist books. She has exhibited in venues including the Art Institute of Chicago, Kemper Museum of Contemporary Art, Danforth Art, Rose Art Museum, Indianapolis Museum of Art and A.I.R.,[5][6][7] and been reviewed in publications, including Artforum,[8] Arts Magazine[9] and ARTnews.[3] Grad co-founded Artemisia Gallery, one the country's first women-artist collectives, in Chicago in 1973.[10] She has been an educator for over four decades, most notably at the Massachusetts College of Art and Design.[5] Grad has been based in the Boston area since 1987.[11]

Grad's work is noted for its loose, painterly invented spaces, lush color, and ability to conjure wide-ranging allusions to land and seascapes, urban sprawl, or ecological concerns.[12][2][13][14] In 2018, critic John Yau wrote that Grad's "patterns and striations evoke watery reflections and geological strata, tilled land and strip mines, without shedding their identity as abstract, painterly marks. […] She evokes a world undergoing myriad changes, from the incremental and unavoidable to the deliberate and cataclysmic."[1] Describing the 2016 Grad show "Off Road," The Boston Globe's Cate McQuaid observed, "Grad paints energy and movement, not things. [Her] stripes, colors, and crashing forms conveying urgency as she places us on the precipice of chaos."[2]

  1. ^ a b Yau, John. Barbara Grad – FAQ: Frequently Asked Questions], Catalogue, essay, Palm Beach, FL: Findlay Galleries, 2018.
  2. ^ a b c McQuaid, Cate. "Fasten Your Seat Belts For 'Off Road'", Boston Globe, June 24, 2016.
  3. ^ a b Stapen, Nancy. "Barbara Grad," ARTNews, December 1996.
  4. ^ Kirsch, Elisabeth. "Exhibit is a Higher Form of Art," The Kansas City Star, March 10, 2011, p. 18.
  5. ^ a b Frenn, Chawky. 100 Boston Painters, Atglen, PA: Schiffer Publishing Ltd, 2012, p. 82–3.
  6. ^ Kemper Museum of Contemporary Art. "The Big Reveal," Exhibition program, 2011.
  7. ^ Rose Art Museum. Restive Visions, Catalogue, Waltham, MA: Rose Art Museum, 1989.
  8. ^ Koslow-Miller, Francine. "Barbara Grad," Artforum, January 1997, p 89.
  9. ^ Westfall, Stephen. "Barbara Grad," Arts Magazine, December, 1985, p. 125.
  10. ^ Cite error: The named reference Gardner-Huggett was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  11. ^ Findlay Galleries. Barbara Grad – FAQ: Frequently Asked Questions, Catalogue, Palm Beach, FL: Findlay Galleries, 2018.
  12. ^ O'Brien, Barbara. "The Circumstantial Evidence of Place, Finding Our Way Into (and Out of) a Painting," Video Villa: New Paintings by Barbara Grad, Exhibition essay. Kansas City, MO: Kemper Museum of Contemporary Art, 2011.
  13. ^ Koslow-Miller, Francine. Barbara Grad: Lost Horizons, Boston: Howard Yezerski Gallery, 2013.
  14. ^ Taylor, Robert. "The striking visions of eight area artists," Boston Globe, March 26, 1989.