Gwen Gunter
Grayson, GA United States
I am an abstract painter in Atlanta, Ga. exploring the relationship of shape and line in an environment of vivid color. Sometimes harmonious, sometimes oppositional, these elements are my vocabulary for discovery and exploration. What started wit... More
Artist Statement:
I am an abstract painter in Atlanta, Ga. exploring the relationship of shape and line in an environment of vivid color. Sometimes harmonious, sometimes oppositional, these elements are my vocabulary for discovery and exploration.
What started with a fourth grade teacher who saw promise in a portrait of Abraham Lincoln and insisted on extracurricular art instruction, led to a life filled with artistic endeavor in many mediums. Though my BA degree was in English Literature, due to parental requirements, I was determined to become an artist. Through a series of fortuitous jobs and mentors, I was able to gain experiential training and forged a career as a graphic artist and product designer.
During this period, I also explored areas as diverse as studying with a master sign painter, becoming the artist for the Department of Agriculture, serving as graphics director for a management consulting firm and for a paper products manufacturer. In addition I licensed artwork for fine art publishers and art posters. All the while I studied painting and exhibited representational landscapes and portraits in the Carolinas and Georgia.
After becoming a student at the Atlanta College of Art, I began the transition into abstraction. I soon realized that abstraction would be my direction and purpose.
In the summer of 2015 I was able to take advantage of a period of intensive study and painting in Taos, NM. While there I became immersed in images from sketchbook drawings I had been creating but not painting for many years. Encouraged to see where this direction could lead, I began painting these images in a simplified graphic manner concentrating on shape and line. There has been no turning back as I feel I have found my true voice in the challenge of expression through shape, color and line.
What started with a fourth grade teacher who saw promise in a portrait of Abraham Lincoln and insisted on extracurricular art instruction, led to a life filled with artistic endeavor in many mediums. Though my BA degree was in English Literature, due to parental requirements, I was determined to become an artist. Through a series of fortuitous jobs and mentors, I was able to gain experiential training and forged a career as a graphic artist and product designer.
During this period, I also explored areas as diverse as studying with a master sign painter, becoming the artist for the Department of Agriculture, serving as graphics director for a management consulting firm and for a paper products manufacturer. In addition I licensed artwork for fine art publishers and art posters. All the while I studied painting and exhibited representational landscapes and portraits in the Carolinas and Georgia.
After becoming a student at the Atlanta College of Art, I began the transition into abstraction. I soon realized that abstraction would be my direction and purpose.
In the summer of 2015 I was able to take advantage of a period of intensive study and painting in Taos, NM. While there I became immersed in images from sketchbook drawings I had been creating but not painting for many years. Encouraged to see where this direction could lead, I began painting these images in a simplified graphic manner concentrating on shape and line. There has been no turning back as I feel I have found my true voice in the challenge of expression through shape, color and line.
Education:
BA Columbia College
Further study at the Atlanta College of Art and at
Savannah College of Art and Design (Atlanta campus)
Further study at the Atlanta College of Art and at
Savannah College of Art and Design (Atlanta campus)
Exhibitions:
Recent group shows:
2017 - Brooklyn Waterfront Artists Coalition , Brooklyn, NY
Laura Phipps, Assistant Curator at The Whitney Museum of American Art, juror
2017 - 9th National Juried Exhibition - Prince Street Gallery, New York, NY
Stuart Shils, juror
2017 - Gathered -MOCA GA
Atlanta, GA - Masud Olufani, Rocio Rodriguez and Jerry Siegel, jurors
2017 - Callanwolde Gallery 2017 Juried Art Exhibition
Atlanta, GA - Susan Bridges, juror
2016 - Rocky Mountain National Water Media Show
Golden, Colorado - Katherine Chang Liu, juror
2016 - Anne Irwin Fine Art Emerging Artists, Atlanta, GA
2016 - LaGrange Southeast Regional - Deanna Sirlin, juror
LaGrange Museum, LaGrange, GA
2017 - Brooklyn Waterfront Artists Coalition , Brooklyn, NY
Laura Phipps, Assistant Curator at The Whitney Museum of American Art, juror
2017 - 9th National Juried Exhibition - Prince Street Gallery, New York, NY
Stuart Shils, juror
2017 - Gathered -MOCA GA
Atlanta, GA - Masud Olufani, Rocio Rodriguez and Jerry Siegel, jurors
2017 - Callanwolde Gallery 2017 Juried Art Exhibition
Atlanta, GA - Susan Bridges, juror
2016 - Rocky Mountain National Water Media Show
Golden, Colorado - Katherine Chang Liu, juror
2016 - Anne Irwin Fine Art Emerging Artists, Atlanta, GA
2016 - LaGrange Southeast Regional - Deanna Sirlin, juror
LaGrange Museum, LaGrange, GA
Artistic Influences:
My influences lately have been the rich tradition of geometric painters from the 1950's into the current time. They have included Carmen Herrera, Stuart Davis, Elsworth Kelley, Karl Benjamin, Frederick Hammersley, and John McLaughlin.
Artist Tags:
abstract, midcentury, contemporary, geometric, minimalism, modern
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