Gregory Euclide for Otherworldly

March 27th, 2011 at 10:56pm Molly

There was a lot of excitement to in the hallway outside of the studio with artist Gregory Euclide hard at work. We rarely get a glimpse of an exhibit so far in advance of an opening, but preparations are well underway for Otherworldly: Optical Delusions and Small Realities.

For Otherworldly, Greg has planned a room-sized installation; a consuming 7×5- foot landscape painting in a gilded gold frame with several dioramas, working to pull the viewer into his world. To quote Greg from an interview last year, “Personally, flat work is dead and lifeless. It is all in your head. One has to project themselves into the work. That is now how we experience the world. I like making work that involves the body. I’m not ready to live on a computer screen yet, I still acknowledge that I have a human body.”

According to the National Gallery of Art in Washington DC, American art in the 1820s was dominated by landscape painting. Artists were inspired by the untouched wilderness and the new nation’s seemingly limitless potential. The genre has expanded and evolved, impacted by the work of photographers, developments in cartography and topography, and contemporary artists who approach landscape through history, culture or science, like Eco or Earth artists. Informed by the history of the genre, Greg presents his own vast and lonely landscape, with the viewer and the artist as the only human presence.

The greens and gold with a pop of baby blue feel natural yet glamorous, as Greg intended. “I’m just happy that the colors are beautiful. People can look at it, and just appreciate the beauty without any prior knowledge or contextual information.”

You can see more progress photos of Gregory Euclide’s installation on Flickr,  but to see the completed work, visit MAD for Otherworldly:Optical Delusions and Small Realities, opening June 7^th.

PS- As I watched Greg work, I noticed how he towered over his landscapes, moving deliberately though the in-progress installation. At 6’ 4”, this artist can relate to his hometown hero. Greg resides in LeSeuer, MN- home of the Jolly Green Giant. With a booming “HO HO HO”, he described some excellent old Jolly Green Giant commercials, featuring a big guy painted green strolling through a diorama of the midwest’s rolling hills. Watch for yourself here or here, and leave us a witty comment.

Entry Filed under: in the studio