About the artist
PABLO GRISS, born in 1971 in Caracas, Venezuela graduated from Columbia University, School of Visual Arts (1996) in New York, where he lived and worked until 1998. He currently lives and works in Berlin, Germany. Griss has participated in several group and solo exhibitions in U.S.A, Europe, and Latin America.
In 2013 his series Intervention was first introduced during ArtBo ’13 sharing exhibiting space with well known Neo Geo artist Peter Halley; during this art fair, his work was featured as the cover for the digital version of Art in America Magazine. In 2014 his work was included in ‘100 Painters of Tomorrow’ authored by Kurt Beers and published by Thames & Hudson.
Pablo Griss’s paintings possess a magnetic allure, drawing viewers in with their meticulously crafted color palette, precise lines, clear contours, and elegant balance. These elements, coupled with their optical effects and an undeniable energy, serve as the artistic beacon.
Griss’s art is direct, eschewing superfluous anecdotes, and instead, it navigates the realm where human consciousness meets the subconscious. It transports the observer to a parallel universe where the interconnectedness of all things becomes undeniable, accepted, and manifested.
Color Magnetic Continuum
His renowned series, “Color Magnetic Continuum,” emerged from a desire to intervene in the fertile crossroads of art history, encompassing Minimalism, Kinetics, Neo-Geo, and Geometry. Griss pioneers his visual language through a series of “interventions” aimed at liberating him from the conventional shapes and visual tricks associated with these movements.
In place of classical squares, triangles, and circles, Griss employs rhomboidal shapes and lines, resembling sharp knives or scalpels, as if inviting viewers to witness the tools of his artistic intervention, cutting and deconstructing the traditional codes of geometric art.
His colors, consistently flat and compact, reflect meticulous study and an ongoing exploration of color, paying homage to his predecessors like Carlos Cruz-Diez, Joseph Alberts, and the Bauhaus school. These tones can be bold and vibrant, following in the footsteps of his Venezuelan forebears, or they can be discreet, understated, monochromatic, or bi-chromatic, evoking a contemporary revival of minimalist aesthetics, reminiscent of works like Frank Stella’s “The Marriage of Reason and Squalor” or Yves Klein’s Blue Monochromes.
gateways to other realities
Griss dispenses with chiaroscuro and vanishing points, the favored techniques of Op-art, in favor of tangible forms and dynamic shifts in color, invoking a sense of multidimensionality. These alternate planes aren’t merely physical but serve as gateways to other realities.
The brushwork is resolute and unwavering, mirroring the artist’s strong yet sensitive spirit, capable of translating the universal language of energy onto canvas. Pablo Griss’s objective extends beyond the manipulation of geometric constructs; he aspires to create concrete and iconic masterpieces that radiate universal energy and its transformative potential.
Moreover, magnetic fields, radiation, resonance, currents, and electromagnetic waves, with their philosophical and psychological implications, profoundly shape Griss’s worldview—from his studies in Engineering and Applied Science at Columbia University to his interpretation of life and human interactions.
In his paintings, these phenomena aren’t presented as schematic scientific reproductions but are distilled into a minimalist, humanistic interpretation.This explains the unique sensation of encountering Griss’s work—an experience simultaneously novel and familiar. It’s a testament to the undeniable power of his art, capable of captivating viewers, transcending individual preferences, tastes, knowledge, and education.
The article was contributed by the Luisa Catucci Gallery. Discover more about the artist here.
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