BOB GREGSON
My work is a collision of interests – including architecture, design, play, and references from the history of geometric abstraction. Game theory is an important part the process. In many ways the pieces become a hinge between artist and audience. One enters the work through the visual temptation of color, visual tricks, humor and, at times, words and symbols. Some pieces demand active participation where the work is continually reinterpreted and refreshed through those who encounter it. Recent paintings and drawings however are the result of setting the rules for myself. This allows the image to be revealed through each intuitive decision. Despite their hard edge, they are not minimal. The final pieces are enthusiastic and colorful as shapes zig zag around the surface colliding and avoid each other.
Robert Gregson received a BFA from the Hartford Art School at the University of Hartford and an MFA from the Art Institute of Chicago. His early art education began with Life Magazine illustrator Carroll N. Jones, Jr. and Pulitzer Fellowship recipient Rudolph Zallinger. He worked at the renowned Sidney Janis Gallery in New York installing exhibits by Josef Albers, Claes Oldenburg, Ellsworth Kelly, Marisol and others. He has exhibited in Chicago, New York and Washington, D.C. as well as Northeast. Throughout his career he has challenged the boundaries between artist and viewer. In addition to his wall pieces and sculpture, he has been the artistic director for over a hundred large-scale public events he calls “situations” – mixing thousands of community participants with enormous inflatable sculptures, scaffolding towers, mazes and theatrical lighting. In 2014, the New Britain Museum of American Art presented an exhibition of his interactive works in a show titled Space to Maneuver. His work is in many private collections as well as the New Britain Museum and the Housatonic Museum of Art and the State of Connecticut.
As a teacher he directed the art classes at the Wadsworth Atheneum in Hartford, taught at the Young Artists Studio in Chicago, the University of New Haven, Southern Connecticut State University and the University of Hartford. He is the author/ illustrator of several best selling books for teachers that combine art and games. Bob is the former creative director for Connecticut Culture & Tourism and is currently a member of the the Silvermine Guild in New Canaan.
SOLO EXHIBITIONS
2017 Out of Order, Creative Arts Workshop, New Haven, CT
2016 Off Kilter, Five Points Gallery, Torrington, CT
2014 Space to Maneuver, New Britain Museum, New Britain, CT
Drawings, Silvermine Arts Center, New Canaan, CT
ArchiAbstracts, Gores Pavilion, New Canaan, CT
2013 Pivot Point, Three Rivers Gallery, Norwich, CT
2012 Full Tilt, Silvermine Arts Center, New Canaan, CT
Chamber Works, New Arts Gallery, Litchfield, CT
2011 Your Turn, Kohn-Joseloff Gallery, Cheshire, CT
Just a Phase, City Lights Gallery, Bridgeport, CT
2010 Eclipse and Outriggers, New Arts Gallery, Litchfield, CT
2007 Ambiguous Territories, Northwest CT College, Winsted, CT
2005 Spot Check, Artspace, New Haven, CT
2004 In Your Face, International Festival, New Haven, CT
2001 Looking at Architecture, Greater New Haven Arts Council, CT
1997 A Cause to Celebrate, Creative Arts Workshop, New Haven, CT
1986 Projects + Drawings, Gallery Jazz, New Haven, CT
1985 Bizarre Architecture, Atria Gallery, Hartford, CT
1982 Drawings, Thorne Gallery, Northampton, MA
1981 Metamorphomaze, Capital Children’s Museum, Washington, D.C.
1980 The Living Room, Capital Children’s Museum, Washington, D.C.
1978 Bob Gregson’s Private Parts, Real Arts Ways, Hartford, CT
1977 Dinner with Bob Gregson, Wadsworth Atheneum, Hartford, CT
1975 The Bob Gregson Catalog, Walter Kelly Gallery, Chicago, IL
1974 6 Events, Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago, IL
Cocktails, N.A.M.E. Gallery, Chicago, IL
1972 73 of My Closest Friends, Wadsworth Atheneum, Hartford, CT
1971 Sound Sculptures, Wadsworth Atheneum, Hartford, CT
1970 Time Exposures, Wadsworth Atheneum, Hartford, CT
GROUP EXHIBITIONS
2019 Materialized, curated by Suzan Shutan, UMass, Amherst, MA
Perverse Furniture, curated by Sarah Fritchey and Aude Jomini, Artspace, New Haven, CT
In Formation, John Slade Ely Center for Contemporary Art, New Haven, CT
2018 Art of the Northeast, curated by Patricia Hickson, Silvermine Arts Center, New Canaan, CT
2017 Art of the Northeast, curated by David Kiehl, Silvermine Arts Center, New Canaan, CT
Mighty Minis, curated by Suzan Shutan, Souterrain Gallery, West Cornwall, CT
MANIAC 5, Ely Center of Contemporary Art, New Haven, CT
2016 Silvermine Group Show, Elizabeth Harris Gallery, New York, NY
2D3D, The Dehn Gallery, Manchester, CT
Mixmaster, Mattatuck Museum, Waterbury, CT
2015 Going Big, Suzan Shutan curator, Central Booking, New York, NY
Brights, Worrell Smith Gallery, Westport, CT
2014 Art of the Northeast, Andrew Russeth curator, Silvermine Arts
Center, New Canaan, CT
Wonder & Awe, Silpe Gallery, Margaret Vauhan curator, Hartford Art School, U of H, CT
2013 Vibrant, The Whitney Center, Hamden, Connecticut
Alumni, Silpe Gallery, University of Hartford, West Hartford, CT
Where are we (going?), Emily Cheng curator, Silvermine Arts Center, New Canaan, CT
Fetish Objects, Artspace Gallery, New Haven, CT
Untapped Invitational, Bodell Fahey Umbrella Projects, NY, NY
Sketch, City Lights Gallery, Bridgeport, CT
2012 Making Room, curated by Suzan Shutan, Library Institute, New Haven, CT
2011 Introspection, New Arts Gallery, Litchfield, CT
I Think It’s Conceptual, John Slade Ely Center for Contemporary Art, New Haven, CT
2010 Inside Out, Silvermine Art Center, New Canaan, CT
2009 Index II, Artspace, New Haven, CT
Family Business, The Parachute Factory, New Haven, CT
2008 Size is Relative, Silpe Gallery Hartford Art School,University of Hartford
CONNcentric, ArtSpace, New Haven, CT
2007 Miniatures, Guilford Center for the Arts, Guilford, CT
2006 Revealed / Concealed, Small Space Gallery, New Haven, CT
Art in the Garden, Wilbur & King Nurseries, Guilford, CT
2005 In the Round, John Slade Ely Center for Contemporary Art, New Haven, CT
HAS / NYC, Philip Alan Gallery, New York, NY
2002 Where Earth Meets Sky, Creative Arts Workshop,New Haven, CT
2001 Young Architects, New Haven Colony Historical Society,New Haven, CT
1986 Architectural References, Shipee Gallery, New York, New York
Now + Then (with Kiki Smith and Philip-Lorcia DiCorcia), Uno Gallery, Hartford, CT
Illusions (with Werner Pfeiffer), Promenade Gallery, Hartford, CT
1985 Gallery Artists, Gallery Jazz, New Haven, CT
Faces + Facets, New Haven Colony Historical Society, New Haven, CT
1984 Group Show, Urbach Gallery, New Haven, CT
1982 Connecticut Artists, Aetna Gallery, Hartford, CT
1975 30 Artists will be..., Burpee Art Museum, Rockford, IL
25 Years to 2000, N.A.M.E. Gallery, Chicago, IL
COLLECTIONS
Represented in private and public collections including
the New Britain Museum of American Art
State of Connecticut Collection
Housatonic Museum of Art