Gronk
Encyclopedia
Chicano
The terms "Chicano" and "Chicana" are used in reference to U.S. citizens of Mexican descent. However, those terms have a wide range of meanings in various parts of the world. The term began to be widely used during the Chicano Movement, mainly among Mexican Americans, especially in the movement's...
painter, printmaker, and performance art
Performance art
In art, performance art is a performance presented to an audience, traditionally interdisciplinary. Performance may be either scripted or unscripted, random or carefully orchestrated; spontaneous or otherwise carefully planned with or without audience participation. The performance can be live or...
ist Glugio Nicandro. According to Gronk, his widely-repeated birth year of 1954 is false and directly attributed to his long-time dealer, Daniel Saxon, who wanted his young artist to "be older" and "taken seriously." The artist also states that "Gronk" is a name his mother found in an article on a Brazilian tribe in National Geographic while resting shortly before his birth.
Career
Gronk was a founding member of ASCOAscó
Ascó is a large village in the comarca of Ribera d'Ebre, Catalonia, Spain, on the right bank of the Ebre river. The village of Ascó is known for its nuclear power station, and for excellent fishing in the river....
, a multi-media arts collective in the 1970s. Influenced by European film, existentialism, and literature (i.e., Camus, Beckett) Gronk and his early teenage cohorts made "movies without film", farcical "happenings" on the streets of their native East LA, with Patssi Valdez (magical realist painter of ominous domestic interiors) starring in female roles. Gronk is largely self-educated. Bored with High School and radicalized politically by the anti-Vietnam War and Chicano Walk-Out movements of Los Angeles schools, Gronk and friends barely attended their final years in school, and may not have graduated. He took some classes at Community College. Gronk reports that he was kicked out of famed East LA's Self Help Graphics "by that chain-smoking nun," Karen Boccalero, for not following instructions.
He is best known for his murals, including those at Estrada Courts
Estrada Courts, Los Angeles, California
Estrada Courts is a low-income housing project in the Boyle Heights area of Los Angeles, California.-History and Construction:Estrada Courts was constructed in 1942-1943, during the World War II housing shortage in Southern California, which resulted from the war-time boom in war-industry work,...
in East Los Angeles. More recently his murals have been intentionally painted as temporary art works (i.e., Fisher Gallery, University of Southern California) to be whitewashed later, Gronk has been involved with theater since his teenage ASCO days, through more elaborate stage design for organizations such as the Los Angeles Opera
Los Angeles Opera
The Los Angeles Opera is an opera company in Los Angeles, California. It is the fourth largest opera company in the United States. The company's home base is the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion, part of the Los Angeles Music Center.-Current leadership:...
and Santa Fe Opera
Santa Fe Opera
The Santa Fe Opera is an American opera company, located north of Santa Fe in the U.S. state of New Mexico, headquartered on a former guest ranch of .-General history:...
. His scenic work has also been featured onstage with Latino Theater Company
Latino Theater Company
The Latino Theater Company is a theatre producing organization based in Los Angeles, California.- History :Latino Theater Company was founded in 1985 by its Artistic Director, Jose Luis Valenzuela. Known as the "Latino Theater Lab" and based at the Los Angeles Theatre Center , they produced plays...
and East West Players
East West Players
East West Players is an Asian American theatre organization in Los Angeles, founded in 1965. As one of the nation's first Asian American theatre organizations, East West Players today continues to produce works and educational programs that give voice to the Asian Pacific American...
.
In 1996, Gronk won a Los Angeles Dramalogue Award for Set design of the Theatrical play of "La Chunga". He has collaborated with composer Joseph Julian Gonzalez on “Tormenta Cantada,” a visual/musical piece performed in 1995, with Kronos Quartet
Kronos Quartet
Kronos Quartet is a string quartet founded by violinist David Harrington in 1973 in Seattle, Washington. Since 1978, the quartet has been based in San Francisco, California. The longest-running combination of performers had Harrington and John Sherba on violin, Hank Dutt on viola, and Joan...
at University of California, Los Angeles
University of California, Los Angeles
The University of California, Los Angeles is a public research university located in the Westwood neighborhood of Los Angeles, California, USA. It was founded in 1919 as the "Southern Branch" of the University of California and is the second oldest of the ten campuses...
.
In 2003, Gronk was in residency at University of New Mexico
University of New Mexico
The University of New Mexico at Albuquerque is a public research university located in Albuquerque, New Mexico, in the United States. It is the state's flagship research institution...
, as part of the Cultural Practice/Virtual Styles project.
He was also given a career retrospective, where Asco famously left its graffiti "tag" years earlier, in protest against the official Chicano art of "Los Four"---Los Angeles County Museum of Art.
He also curated "Altares", a small exhibition at UCLA Hammer Museum.
Gronk's murals, paintings on canvas, and widely-collected screen prints, relate to the direct visual aesthetic contained in works by German Expressionist Max Beckmann
Max Beckmann
Max Beckmann was a German painter, draftsman, printmaker, sculptor, and writer. Although he is classified as an Expressionist artist, he rejected both the term and the movement...
and the cartoon-like paintings of American Phillip Guston, along with vernacular arts of early civilizations (i.e., Toltec figurines).
His signature art piece is of "La Tormenta".
He mostly paints at night.
Gronk collaborated with Tandem Press
Tandem Press
Tandem Press is an independent publisher based in Auckland, New Zealand founded in 1990. It specializes in New Zealand fiction and non-fiction. It published Alan Duff's Once Were Warriors.-Sources:*The New Zealand Writer's Handbook...
.
His work is represented by Daniel Saxon of Saxon Gallery, West Hollywood, California.
Gronk is accessible to students and others, often seen walking in Downtown Los Angeles.
Comfortable with the moniker "Chicano artist", Gronk's intense devotion to craft and multi-disciplinary pursuits are informed by a wide knowledge from a myriad of global and historic sources.
Additional information
Gronk was a former member of Team Ektanshpiell, with Milorad Cubrilo, Alexandros Lyrasss, Billy Pappas & Yanni Papaikosikaienneagopolous.Murals
- Moratorium - The Black and White Mural by Willie Herron and Gronk (1973) located at 3221 Olympic Boulevard, Los Angeles, CaliforniaLos Angeles, CaliforniaLos Angeles , with a population at the 2010 United States Census of 3,792,621, is the most populous city in California, USA and the second most populous in the United States, after New York City. It has an area of , and is located in Southern California...
Exhibitions
Gronk's work has been shown at:- The ROGUE buddha GALLERY in Minneapolis, MN
- The Corcoran Gallery of ArtCorcoran Gallery of ArtThe Corcoran Gallery of Art is the largest privately supported cultural institution in Washington, DC. The museum's main focus is American art. The permanent collection includes works by Rembrandt, Eugène Delacroix, Edgar Degas, Thomas Gainsborough, John Singer Sargent, Claude Monet, Pablo...
in Washington, D.C.Washington, D.C.Washington, D.C., formally the District of Columbia and commonly referred to as Washington, "the District", or simply D.C., is the capital of the United States. On July 16, 1790, the United States Congress approved the creation of a permanent national capital as permitted by the U.S. Constitution.... - The San Francisco Museum of Modern ArtSan Francisco Museum of Modern ArtThe San Francisco Museum of Modern Art is a modern art museum located in San Francisco, California. A nonprofit organization, SFMOMA holds an internationally recognized collection of modern and contemporary art and was the first museum on the West Coast devoted solely to 20th century art...
- The National Hispanic Cultural CenterNational Hispanic Cultural CenterThe National Hispanic Cultural Center in Albuquerque, New Mexico is an establishment for preserving and promoting the culture of the Spanish-speaking world...
in AlbuquerqueAlbuquerque, New MexicoAlbuquerque is the largest city in the state of New Mexico, United States. It is the county seat of Bernalillo County and is situated in the central part of the state, straddling the Rio Grande. The city population was 545,852 as of the 2010 Census and ranks as the 32nd-largest city in the U.S. As...
, New MexicoNew MexicoNew Mexico is a state located in the southwest and western regions of the United States. New Mexico is also usually considered one of the Mountain States. With a population density of 16 per square mile, New Mexico is the sixth-most sparsely inhabited U.S... - The Los Angeles County Museum of ArtLos Angeles County Museum of ArtThe Los Angeles County Museum of Art is an art museum in Los Angeles, California. It is located on Wilshire Boulevard along Museum Row in the Miracle Mile vicinity of Los Angeles, adjacent to the George C. Page Museum and La Brea Tar Pits....
- The Mexican MuseumMexican MuseumEl Museo Mexicano or The Mexican Museum is a San Francisco, California, USA museum created to exhibit the aesthetic expression of the Latino, Chicano, Mexican, and Mexican-American people.-History:...
in San FranciscoSan Francisco, CaliforniaSan Francisco , officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the financial, cultural, and transportation center of the San Francisco Bay Area, a region of 7.15 million people which includes San Jose and Oakland... - The de Young Museum in San FranciscoSan Francisco, CaliforniaSan Francisco , officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the financial, cultural, and transportation center of the San Francisco Bay Area, a region of 7.15 million people which includes San Jose and Oakland...
- The San Jose Museum of ArtSan Jose Museum of ArtThe San Jose Museum of Art is an art museum in Downtown San Jose, California, USA. Founded in 1969, the museum hosts a large permanent collection emphasizing West Coast artists of the 20th- and 21st-century. It is located next to the Circle of Palms Plaza and Plaza de César Chávez...
in San JoseSan Jose, CaliforniaSan Jose is the third-largest city in California, the tenth-largest in the U.S., and the county seat of Santa Clara County which is located at the southern end of San Francisco Bay...
External links
- Gronk Painting
- Profile at Santa Fe Opera
- Moratorium - The Black and White Mural
- Tandem Press profile
- Complete list of work and publications
- LA Times profile (October 2005)
- Smithsonian Archives of American Art oral history interview with Gronk (January 1997)
- Gronk, by Max Benavidez
- Cal State LA online alumni art gallery