“Paintings of Contemplation”, By Peter Gregorio

Peter Gregorio, “Contemplation 9”, 6ft. x 6ft., Oil on Canvas, 2003

“Paintings of Contemplation”, By Peter Gregorio

PRESS RELEASE FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Contact: Peter Gregorio

PO Box 1087 Northampton, MA 01061 Studio: (413) 268-7336 Cell: (413) 626-5829 info@petergregorio.com www.petergregorio.com

Exhibition Information:

“Paintings of Contemplation”, By Peter Gregorio Student Union Art Gallery, University of Massachusetts, Amherst Exhibition Dates: April 5-9, 2004 Opening Reception: Tuesday, April 6, 5-7:00pm Gallery Hours: Monday – Thursday 10:00am – 5:00pm, Friday 10:00am – 3:00pm Gallery phone number: 413-545-0792 Sponsored by the UMass Arts Council, The SGA and the GSS Made possible with an Honors Research Grant from Commonwealth College, UMass Amherst. All events are free and open to the public

Amherst, Mass. Peter Gregorio will exhibit large-scale oil paintings he has been working on for the last three years, exploring his experiences of ancient architectural structures, at the Student Union Gallery, University of Massachusetts on April 5-9, 2004. The Exhibit will feature ten 6ft x 6ft, oil paintings on canvas, exploring the elements and visions, which intuitively inspired him from experiences he had while traveling in Nepal, and painting them into a synthetic arrangement. The paintings are the culmination of the effects these ancient places had on him and his attempt to dictate the feelings of awe and plasticity that they provoked within.

A resident of Northampton, Peter Gregorio has exhibited his work at the “Canal Gallery”, in Holyoke Ma, the “Northampton Center for the Arts” in Northampton, MA, the “A3 Gallery” in Amherst, MA, “Barnard University”, in New York City, the “Carnegie Arts Center” in Covington, KY, The “Armory Show” in Philadelphia, PA, and he will be exhibiting the same works in July, at the “55 Mercer Street Gallery” in Soho, New York City, He has work in private collections in New York City, Philadelphia, Montreal, and New Jersey. He was apprentice for four years under artist Mike Skop at the Studio 70 Fine Art Atelier, and has attended the University of Massachusetts, University of Pennsylvania, and Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts. Slides or Photographs are available upon request. Please contact artist at (413) 626-5829

Contact: Studio: P.O. Box 1087 Northampton, MA 01061 413.268.7336 e-mail: info@petergregorio.com website: www.petergregorio.com

New York: 55 Cooper Street New York, NY 10034 413.626.5829

RESUME

EDUCATION:

• 2001-04: University of Massachusetts, Amherst, Massachusetts. • 1993: University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. • 1993: Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. • 1987-1991: Studio 70, Fine Art Atelier, Fort Thomas, Kentucky.

GRANTS & AWARDS:

• 2004: Umass Arts Council Grant, University of Massachusetts, Amherst. • 2003: Massachusetts Cultural Council and Northampton Arts Council Grant • 2003: Commonwealth College, Honors Research Grant, University of Massachusetts, Amherst. • 2003: Class of '43, Award, University of Massachusetts, Amherst.

EXHIBITIONS:

• *2004: Forthcoming, July - Guest Show, 55 Mercer Street Gallery-SoHo, Manhattan, New York. (Eleven oil paintings on canvas)

• 2004: Forthcoming, May – July, All Together Now, Warren Robbins Gallery, School of Art & Design, University of Michigan. (Oil Painting on Canvas)

• *2004: Forthcoming, April-May -Paintings of Contemplation, Honors Thesis Exhibition, Student Union Gallery, University of Massachusetts, Amherst, Massachusetts. (Ten oil paintings on canvas)

• 2004: February-March -"15 Exposures", National juried exhibition by The Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, Riverfront Renaissance Center for the Arts, Millville, New Jersey. Sponsored by: William T. Justice and the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts Alumni Association. Juror: David B. Dearinger, Chief Curator, National Academy of Design, New York. (Oil painting on canvas)

• 2004: January - A3 Gallery, Amherst, Massachusetts. (Five oil paintings on canvas) • 2004: January – First Night Video Installation, The Town of Northampton, Asked by the Town of Northampton

and the Northampton Center for the Arts to be Art Director of the New Years Eve Countdown Display, Featuring Light-up Ball Dropping and 26ft Video Installation created by Peter Gregorio and David Ambrose to be displayed on the outside wall of the Hotel Northampton, Main St., Northampton, Massachusetts. (26ft. video presentation)

• 2003-2004: Forthcoming, December-January, -"15 Exposures", National juried exhibition by The Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, Lyme Academy, Old Lyme, Connecticut. Sponsored by: William T. Justice and the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts Alumni Association. Juror: David B. Dearinger, Chief Curator, National Academy of Design, New York. (Oil painting on canvas)

• 2003: November - Deep in the Night of the Body, Northampton Independent Film Festival and the Northampton Center for the Arts, Northampton, Massachusetts. Experimental Feature Movie/Video by Peter Gregorio and David Ambrose with Six Oil Paintings by Peter Gregorio, and poetry by Edward Bartok-Baratta. Produced by Peter Gregorio and David Ambrose's production company, "Brassworks Studio Productions". Made possible with a grant from the Massachusetts Cultural Council and Northampton Arts Council. (70 minute video and six oil paintings on un-stretched linen)

• 2003: October - "USArtists" American Fine Art Show, -"15 Exposures", National juried exhibition by The Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, 33rd Street Armory, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Sponsored by: William T. Justice and the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts Alumni Association. Juror: David B. Dearinger, Chief Curator, National Academy of Design, New York. (Oil painting on canvas)

Peter Gregorio

• 2003: October - Video installation, Divas Night Club, Northampton, Massachusetts. Produced by Peter Gregorio and David Ambrose's production company, "Brassworks Studio Productions". (thirty minute looping video projection)

• *2003: October - Perimeter Visions: an Exhibition Environment, Food For Thought Books, Amherst, Massachusetts. (Oil painting on canvas)

• 2003: August - A Collaboration, Peter and Dimitri Gregorio, Java Net, Northampton, Massachusetts. (ten acrylic paintings on canvas)

• 2003: August - New Members Exhibition, A3 Gallery, Amherst, Massachusetts. (Eight silver gelatin prints) • *2003: July - Ghosts of Nepal, The Northampton Center for the Arts, Northampton, Massachusetts. (Ten oil

paintings on canvas) • 2002-03: October-March - Looking For Answers, Canal Gallery, Holyoke Massachusetts. (Ten oil paintings on

canvas) • *2002: Nepal Portraits, Java Net. Northampton, Massachusetts. (Fifteen silver gelatin prints) • 2001: Performance, Paintings for Natasha Steinhardt and Michael Batshaw, Chatom, New York. • *1996: Exhibition and Jazz Concert with Eddie Gomez, Maritime Studio, Norwalk, Connecticut. (Four oil

paintings on canvas) • *1993-Present: Opera House Murals, Permanent instillation for Upstairs at Varalli's, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

(Three large scale oil paintings on canvas) • 1991: Studio 70 Exhibition, Carnegie Arts Center, Covington, Kentucky. (Four oil paintings on canvas and six

charcoal drawings on paper) • 1990: Group Show, Barnard University, Manhattan, New York. (Charcoal drawing on paper) • 1989: Works on Paper, Upstairs at Varalli's, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. (Two charcoal drawings on paper) • 1988: Studio 70 Exhibition, Carnegie Arts Center, Covington, Kentucky. (Four charcoal drawings on paper and

sculpture plaster cast)

COMMISSIONS AND COLLECTIONS:

• 2002: Painting, Michele Jolicner, Fairfield, Connecticut. • 2001: Portrait of Manny Batshaw, Montreal, Canada. • 1993-94: Opera House Murals, Upstairs at Varalli's Restaurant, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. • 1990: Sculpture, Cecelia Rosenblum, Princeton, New Jersey.

HONORS:

• 2003: Phi Kappa Phi, Honors Society. • 2003: Golden Key, International Honors Society. • 2002: Commonwealth College, Honors College at the University of Massachusetts.

TEACHING:

• 1991: Instructor at the Tirthabasar Art Center, Calcutta, India. • 1990-91: Teaching assistant, Studio 70, Fine Art Atelier, Fort Thomas, Kentucky.

BIBLIOGRAPHY:

• 2004: Peter Gregorio’s reproduction of the oil painting, Temporal Archway, appeared along with poet Noah Eli Gordon’s poem, “a falling in autumn” in the Cloud-type Postcard Series, February 2004.

• 2004: Woods, Cameron J., "Abstract art finds an abode at Gallery A3", The Daily Collegian, Amherst, Massachusetts, January 28, 2004.

• 2004: Heflin, James, "Say What?”, Valley Advocate, East Hampton, Massachusetts, January 22, 2004. • 2003: Parnass, Larry, “First up: First Night", Daily Hampshire Gazette, Northampton, Massachusetts, December

31, 2003. • 2003: Parnass, Larry, “Away Games”, Newspaper Article: Daily Hampshire Gazette, Northampton,

Massachusetts, December 15, 2003. • 2003: Bunch, William, “A Patchwork of Light, Ever-changing, illuminated mosaics are the pièce de résistance for

two Philly restaurants.” Magazine Article: Contract Lighting Magazine, December 02, 2003.

• 2003: Zuiderweg, Mieke, “Independent Spirits”, Newspaper Photograph: The Republican, Springfield, Massachusetts, November 8, 2003.

• 2003: Parnass, Larry, “Film offers shared dreams, shared scenes”, Newspaper Article - Cover Story: Daily Hampshire Gazette, Northampton, Massachusetts, November 6, 2003.

• 2003: Perkes, Dan, “Digital imagery: the new cultural medium”, October 31, 2003, Newspaper Article: The Cape Codder, Cap Cod, Massachusetts.

• 2003: Rutkoski, Christine, "Food for eyes joins Amherst", October 6, 2003, Newspaper Article: Daily Hampshire Gazette, Northampton, Massachusetts.

• 2003: Rutkoski, Christine, "A Window on the Arts", October 3, 2003, Newspaper Article: Amherst Bulletin, Amherst, Massachusetts.

• 2003: Aust, Steve, "Give My Regards, Art and lighting converge to provide a singular Broad St. experience." Magazine Article: Web Article: Sign of the Times Publications. Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

• 2003: Traversa, Michele, “Riapre Mavù a metà strada tra musica, arte ed installazioni”, September 5, 2003, Web Article: Music News, Bari, Italy.

• 2003: Mitchell, Phoebe, "Visions that Orient Creation", July 21, 2003, Newspaper Article: Daily Hampshire Gazette, Northampton, Massachusetts.

• 2003: Oppenheimer, Daniel, "Ghosts of Nepal", July 10, 2003, Newspaper Article: Valley Advocate, East Hampton, Massachusetts.

• 2003: Gordon, Noah, "The Work of Peter Gregorio", July 03 2003, Web Article: Blog Spot, Human Verb: Ongoing notes, Northampton, Massachusetts.

• 2002: Russell,Gloria, "Answers' reflects artists' personal journeys", 12-01-2002, Newspaper Article: Union News, Springfield, Massachusetts.

Contact: Studio: P.O. Box 1087 Northampton, MA 01061 413.268.7336 e-mail: info@petergregorio.com website: www.petergregorio.com

New York: 55 Cooper Street New York, NY 10034 413.626.5829

STATEMENT AND BIO As an artist, I am continuing the quest of the perception of nature, and communicating this understanding through art. Art is a catalyst that creates more than what is just seen through the senses. It expresses an intangible space that the viewer can experience internally. Therefore, I must tune myself to my environment, and expand my imagination so that I am able to perceive and express nature’s nuances more vividly. It is this training of my perception that I am committed to. This is a continual process in my development as a human being. To be an artist requires talent but even more, it requires a tremendous amount of practice and work. It also entails a foundation into the use of various mediums as well as knowledge of art history and aesthetics. I realized that I needed to develop my philosophy of life if I wanted to understand my place in the world. This development could only be gained by my personal experiences. For me to truly develop my consciousness and ultimately have something profound to convey, I had to gain experience, gain insight into the nature of reality, art, and perception. The desire to gain meaningful experiences led me to travel to India and volunteer for Mother Teresa’s Missionary of Charity in Calcutta. I spent six months living with an Indian family and working at Kaligat, the home for the sick and dying. I helped take care of people’s basic needs and was exposed to the harsh reality of poverty, illness, and death. I then left Calcutta, traveled to BodhaGaya, and lived in a Tibetan monastery for three months. There I studied Buddhist thought and meditation. The experiences that I had in India have broadened my perspective and given me a deeper understanding of the fragility and preciousness of life. I have made four trips to the east over the last thirteen years, three in India and one in Nepal. These trips have expanded the source of my creativity. While on the trips I had the opportunity to visit ancient temples. These architectural spaces had a significant impact on me. They provoked a sense of contemplation and awe.

My approach to art has led me to transubstantiate these experiences visually within the series of paintings I have created. In these works of art, I am exploring the elements and visions that have intuitively inspired me. I have painted them in a synthetic arrangement to convey the effects of awe and plasticity these ancient structures have provoked within me. It is my intention to communicate these experiences through the exhibition of these visual forms.

Peter Gregorio

The Work of Peter Gregorio

By Noah Eli Gordon, July 2003, Northampton, MA

It is fitting that Peter Gregorio works on such a large scale; fitting because his paintings, ranging in size from the 6ft by 6ft Nepal series to the massive 14ft by 8ft paintings in his Civilization series, are both informed by and respond to architecture. However, the architectural structures in Gregorio’s work, whether mysterious descending stairs and shadowed façades or the temples and alleyways of India and Nepal, engender a tactility missing from much representational painting. Rather than rendering a particular building with mathematical precision, he has chosen to enliven the sometimes-ineffable experience of looking at architecture. Gregorio works through the intersection of the actual world and the abstractions we apply to it. The paintings achieve a compelling duality through the use of foundational color fields, which simultaneously form the background and fill in much of the depicted structures. All of the shapes, forms and patterns carry something of the whole of each work, creating a balanced visual harmony. One senses the breath of the artist in the subtle expansions and contractions of his lines. Everything here seems to hum, while numerous directional imperatives send one at once across and into the depths of the canvas. There is a static-free motion to these works, a motion complicated by the inclusion, within a single painting, of the light from both different seasons and multiple hours of the day. This lends the paintings a peripatetic and rejuvenescent quality as they interact with the light from their surroundings, further mirroring the experience one has while observing architecture. Here, then, is the successful re-creation of the artist’s perception, allowing one to intimately enter into the open-ended meaning of a reverent moment.

“Abstract art finds an abode at Gallery A3”

by Cameron J. Woods, Collegian Staff The Daily Collegian, Amherst, Massachusetts, January 28, 2004

Taiga Ermansons and Peter Gregorio share the walls of Gallery A³ this month, as two of Pioneer Valley’s own artists put their artwork on display. Although these artists share very little stylistically, the juxtaposition of Gregorio’s oil paintings and Ermansons’ ‘line’ art balances the atmosphere a bit, bringing a certain harmony to the gallery. “As an artist, I am continuing the quest of the perception of nature and communicating the understanding through art,” said Gregorio. “Art is a catalyst that creates more than what is just seen through the senses. It expresses an intangible space that the viewer can experience internally.” The unframed pieces reach from ceiling to floor. The painting, done on cloth and with mostly muted colors, depict the human figures - black forms that are haunting, remaining with viewer long after he or she looks away. The pieces find a sense of strength in their ability to convey depth. The images, though they lack concrete, realistic detail, have soft colors that are reminiscent of little streets that you could just step into and walk into some world of shadow people. The mellow colors are offset not only by the black forms but also a vibrant shade hidden within, perhaps hinting at a prize hidden within the banal. “I must tune myself to my environment, and expand my imagination so that I am able to perceive and express nature’s nuances more vividly,” Gregorio said. “It is this training of my perception that I am committed to. This is the continual process in my development as a human being.” Ermansons’ artwork is not as easily open for reading by the viewer. By using strings of different colors suspended from the ceiling and drawn lines on canvas she expresses her message in a rather distinctive way.“An underpinning of my work is my awe of line,” said Ermansons. “I find inspiration in the slender line of a spider’s thread, the mad cursive strokes of Chinese calligraphy, scratches made by a low-lying willow branch in the snow, and String Theory images of invisible vibrating strands.” Though it may appear to be ultra-simplistic at first glance, a more critical look at her artwork stirs the imagination and it is impossible not to ponder the significance of the line. Ultimately some of the weighty meaning of these pieces starts to come through. “It is no surprise to me that ancient Chinese myth tells of how the founder of Chinese civilization drew a trigram of three sold lines and a trigram of three broken lines to convey and plumb the mysteries of the world,” she said. This collection of artwork will be on display at Gallery A³ through the end of January. There will be a public forum on Thursday, Jan. 29 starting at 7:30 p.m.

“Say What?”

by James Heflin Valley Advocate, East Hampton, Massachusetts, January 22, 2004.

Even the best artists go a little nuts sometimes. Attempting to explain, say, what motivated an artist to paint a blue stripe in a field of yellow can seldom be done. Often, the attempt ends up with abstract terms thrown madly about to create something that sounds formidable but really doesn't say much. It's just plain tough to express what drives the visual, no matter how good it is.

This week's case in point comes courtesy of an exhibit in Amherst called Strands by Taiga Ermansons, Paintings by Peter Gregorio . Gregorio's work is reportedly "the culmination of the effects and feelings of awe and plasticity." Gregorio, who is, no doubt, a talented artist facing this maddening problem of declaring himself, says he is "continuing the quest of the perception of nature." His three large-scale oil paintings in the exhibit explore "elements and visions."

Taiga Ermansons' work is a bit more easily described: It consists of abstract drawings on canvas and wood made up of hundreds of fine lines reminiscent of weaving. In this exhibit, she is displaying "single strands of painted canvas hung from the ceiling."

And hey -- with a fashionable photo like this one, these artists may not have to explain themselves. The best way to find out what drives these well-photographed artists is, of course, to check out their work. It's on display through January 31.

Through Jan. 31, artist forum: Jan. 29, 7:30 p.m., Gallery A3, 28 Amity St., Amherst, 253-4171.

Use our contact form to write to James Heflin.

"Film offers shared dreams, shared scenes, Artists from disparate fields join for project"

By Larry Parnass, staff writer Daily Hampshire Gazette, Cover Story,

Northampton, Massachusetts, November 6, 2003

Thursday, November 06, 2003 -- ( NORTHAMPTON ) Like a lot of ideas, the one that clicked for David Ambrose and Peter Gregorio came long after dark, with a day's business done. Ambrose, a video artist, and Gregorio, a painter, found themselves talking about a film that could illuminate the process of fine-art painting - and at the same time use the very act of painting to drive a story on the screen. ''It was one of those nights when you talk till 3 in the morning,'' Gregorio recalled this week. Unlike a lot of late-night notions, this one didn't look so bad in the morning. ''We actually went with it,'' Gregorio said. ''We were both crazy enough to believe we could do it.'' On Saturday, the hour-long experimental film the Northampton men created, with the assistance of poet Edward Bartok-Baratta, premieres at the Northampton Independent Film Festival. Its creators wrote a traditional synopsis for ''Deep in the Night of the Body,'' which is described in the festival's program as a film that ''focuses on longing, grief and the need to renew and create.'' Even so, their work is an experiment through and through. It leaves its meaning as ambiguous, and as open to interpretation, as an abstract painting. To underscore how much the project owes to fine art and poetry, the premier is shaping up as an arts happening of its own. Before the film is shown Saturday, on a 96-inch screen, Bartok-Baratta will perform a spoken-word piece. Half a dozen large paintings by Gregorio, which viewers see being created in the film, will hang in the Northampton center's main hall. And afterwards, the musician who created the score, multi-instrumentalist Ken LaRoche, will perform jazz, joined by bassist Dave Wertman. The artists involved say they hope the film gives viewers new ways to consider creativity. While the four characters in the film spend time searching for and eluding one another, the protagonist - the character pushing action forward - is imagination itself. As the painter in the film hunts for a missing lover, physical elements from the places he searches - all of them local - enter into his paintings. Over the course of the film, the painter, who played by Gregorio himself, makes five paintings. ''At first he starts painting his dreams,'' said Ambrose, who co-directed the film with Gregorio and handled the cinematography. ''Then he paints ... and starts dreaming his paintings.'' Gregorio, 36, and Ambrose, 25, summon effects in the video that, at times, prompt viewers to look at the film's characters as figures in a painting. The pair spoke animatedly of the process, while reviewing the film on a laptop DVD player this week with a reporter. In one scene, the video breaks up slowly into pieces of a mosaic. The sequences are layered, soft and arrestingly beautiful. In a scene shot outside the rear of the Haymarket Cafe in Northampton, a simple doorway becomes, through a video manipulation, a portal into place altogether. Figures elsewhere are cloned and move in the concert of dancers, in brilliantly colored multiples. Dancer Emma Duchesneau of Northampton appears in some of those scenes, Stephanie Allen of Northampton in others. In scenes shot in Gregorio's spacious Brassworks studio in Haydenville, a fixed camera catches the artist mixing paints on a palette and shaping up compositions on unstretched brown linen. That scene allows viewers to watch a painter at work in nearly documentary fashion, letting their thoughts about what's afoot in the film coalesce. ''We give people a little bit of familiarity,'' Gregorio said of such scenes, ''and then go off again.'' A sequence that the filmmakers call the ''Green Scene'' will likely wash the center's hall with green light. The filmmakers have tweaked the intensity of the color, blurring the grass on a field where the action was shot until it becomes vibrant and electric.'' Ambrose says he and the others don't pretend to be accomplished filmmakers, but had things they wanted to say about art, creation and honesty. ''We tried to make something that was beautiful,'' Gregorio said. They completed a 15-minute version of ''Deep in the Night of the Body'' and won a grant from the Northampton Arts Council that allowed them to make the full feature. The film has no spoken narration or dialogue. Instead, it is driven by its pictures, the music by LaRoche and test by Bartok-Baratta that appears in the form of subtitles. Its creators hope to secure showings in other film festivals, but will also be looking for showcases as boundary-breaking as their project. ''This has more to do with art venues than movie venues,'' Ambrose said. ''They can commit to one night, and maybe have 100 people come.'' The poetry that will lead in to Saturday's screening is meant to serve as a welcome mat - and to signal that this will be a novel movie-going experience. ''Your mind is already going to have to slow down,'' Ambrose said, ''and start paying attention in different ways.''

“A Window on the Arts"

By Christine Rutkoski Amherst Bulletin, Amherst, Massachusetts, October 3, 2003

Monday, October 6, 2003 -- AMHERST - If you've passed by Food For Thought Books in Amherst recently, you may have noticed something other than books on display in the storefront window. The nonprofit workers' collective at 106 North Pleasant St. has begun a bimonthly art-installation series, featuring the work of local artists. The series is curated by worker Hollyamber Kennedy, who said she was excited about the project because, in keeping with the store's political orientation, the exhibition is available to everyone. "Anyone with sight can observe the work," she said. "It's a community space. We want people to feel like they have a voice here." The store launched the series last spring with a display of photography by Jessica Fafnir Adamites of Northampton. Since then, the window has housed the work of sculptor Shayna Kipping, as well as an eclectic show of work co-sponsored by the Prison Book Project of Northampton. The Prisoner Art Show featured acrylic painting, ink on handkerchief, graphite and ink sketches on paper and envelopes. The opening reception included performances by local DJ's, spoken word artists and campaign updates from local prisoner advocates and prison abolitionists. Now through Oct. 17, the window features a single large-scale painting by Northampton artist Peter Gregorio. The six-foot-square oil painting is the tenth in the artist's Nepal series. Gregorio, who opened his studio in the Brassworks building in Haydenville five years ago, said the Nepal paintings were inspired by a series of trips he took to the East, including a 2001 trip to Nepal, where he visited ancient Hindu and Buddhist temples. After photographing many of the sites, Gregorio began working to recreate his own visions of these temples in paintings. "I'm very interested in how certain places affect your state of mind, my state of mind," Gregorio said. "How do I capture that? How do I keep that same essential feeling? Gregorio said that by highlighting the parts of the temples that had the greatest impact on him, as well as working in a large format, he hopes to convey the experience that he had when visiting the temples. "I really wanted to create the environment," Gregorio said, "not just the illusion of the environment." In addition to his continuing work on the Nepal series, Gregorio is completing a movie project with video artist David Ambrose, as well as beginning a collaboration with poet Noah Gordon. For more information, visit Gregorio's Web site at www.petergregorio.com. The Food For Thought series continues with artwork by Katherine Gilbert Espada, opening Dec. 5 with a reception that will include poetry reading. Collage art and photographs by Megan Labonte will be featured in January. "The series has been very well received," said worker Matthew King, who added that the bookstore has received many requests from local artist who want to exhibit. "I think it's an amazing thing," said Gregorio. "It's a community." For more information on Food For Thought's window exhibition series contact curator Hollyamber Kennedy at 253-5432.

"Visions that Orient Creation"

By Mitchell, Phoebe Daily Hampshire Gazette, Northampton, Massachusetts, July 21, 2003

Monday, July 21, 2003 -- Volunteer work in India with Calcutta's poor and sick, a three-month visit to a Tibetan monastery to study Buddhism and lectures by Nepal's Dalai Lama are among the experiences Northampton artist Peter Gregorio counts as influences on his art. Ten of Gregorio's large-scale oil paintings, completed over the last three years, chronicle the visual impressions these ancient places and far-off cultures had on him. His pieces are on view in the Northampton Center for the Arts' third-floor gallery at 17 New South St. The exhibition, which is on display in two gallery rooms flanking the floor's performance space, also features stoneware by Haydenville potter Andrew Quient, who uses intricate surface patterns to decorate his hand-thrown vessels, which resemble in shape and size the pottery of ancient China. The show runs through July 28. Gregorio, who has made four trips to India and Nepal over the last 13 years, seeks to explore the ancient structures he encountered in these countries, while capturing the awe they inspired in him. In his 6-by-6-foot painting called "Nepal Series I," Gregorio depicts several shadowed architectural elements, temples and other objects, silhouetted against a whitish background that contains a large, red rectangle and a pure-white circle. On one side a bell hangs from a wooden lintel; on the other, what looks like Tibetan temples with elaborate spikes and domes on their roofs, stand, backlit by the bright backdrop. A black strip, maybe a column in shadow, divides the canvas vertically. The painting creates an impression of monumental forms set in some abstract cityscape, removed from the humdrum of everyday life, real and ethereal simultaneously. Gregorio's work has the pared-to-essentials look of much Oriental art, which overwhelms with its simplicity. There is definitely a darkness here, too. In "Nepal Series III," Gregorio paints a row of four - or is it five? - stupas (a stupa is a domed building that serves as a Buddhist shrine) extending into the distance, their massive forms outlined by what looks like a bright light to one side. The stupas cast dark shadows that extend off the picture plane. The viewer seems to stand in the shadow of a monument in the foreground, watching the only figure in the scene, a dark, robed figure in the distance. Two enigmatic forms, a large, red rectangle and a smaller version of it, hover above the figure. These shrines seem both timeless and, at the same time, immediate, as if the structures have waited for eons for something that is just about to happen. Quient, too, draws inspiration from the Orient, fashioning his stoneware vessels in shapes similar to those of the elegant pottery of China's Tang Dynasty, which ruled in 900 A.D. Using these graceful forms as his canvas, Quient decorates surfaces with bold geometric designs. In an artist's statement he explains his work this way: "In each piece I create a dialogue between the shape and the surface. This may be a harmony, or it may be an active tension. In my latest work I am exploring the use of perspective." For example, Quient decorates the inside of a shallow, red clay bowl with a geometric pattern of criss-crossing lines, impressed in the clay and inlaid with white glaze. The lines create the illusion of three-dimensional steps that contradict the smooth, concave interior of the bowl. Another bowl has an interior inscribed with a pattern that looks like interweaving blue and green ribbons that grow progressively smaller from one side of the vessel to the other, as if the weave is fading into the distance. The design is reminiscent of the enigmatic pieces by Dutch artist M.C. Escher. Quient uses the illusion of perspective in boldly carved, large urns that appear to be loosely woven from strips of red clay. He emphasizes the shape of the urn, which expands outward from a narrow base, by making the weave more open where the vessel is broadest and tighter and more compressed where it is narrower at its top and bottom. Other vessels sport geometric designs made of colorful glazes, including one vase that looks like it is decorated with folded yellow-and-blue paper strips. Quient's work has been featured in gallery exhibits across the country and is included in the permanent collection in the White House. The gallery's hours are Monday through Friday, 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. For more information, call 584-7327.

“Ghosts of Nepal”

by Daniel Oppenheimer Valley Advocate, East Hampton, Massachusetts. July 10, 2003

Ghosts of Nepal

by Daniel Oppenheimer - July 10, 2003

" The paintings are almost two paintings; I began with an abstract, almost color field painting, and then put the images on top of that," says Peter Gregorio , whose work, inspired by visits to India and Nepal, is on exhibit this month at the Northampton Center for the Arts . The effect in many of them is an almost ghost-town landscape, the solidity of the Buddhist and Hindu temples accentuated by the gauzy plain upon which they float. There are few people in the paintings, and those who are there are faceless, blending into the shadows and the corners, becoming almost architectural themselves.

"In the presence of those ancient things," says Gregorio, "I found a sort of existential feeling, moments when I thought, 'I'm alive.' It's the same feeling I get sometimes in the hallway of my apartment at 3 a.m. in the morning and the procession of shadows catches my eye. I've tried to isolate that feeling, that image." There will be a reception for the exhibit, which also includes Andrew Quient's pottery, on July 20.

Use our contact form to write to Daniel Oppenheimer.

July 7-28, reception: July 20, 5-7 p.m., Northampton Center for the Arts, 17 New South St., Northampton, www.petergregorio.com, 584-7327.

COURTESY OF NORHTAMPTON CENTER FOR THE ARTS

Gloria Russell's 'Speaking of Art'

'Answers' reflects artists' personal journeys

By Gloria Russell, Art critic The Republican, Springfield, Massachusetts, 12-01-2002

Exhibit: "Looking for Answers" Where: Canal Gallery, 380 Dwight St., Holyoke When: Through December, by appointment Cost: Free For more info: Call (413) 532-4141 One purpose of "Looking for Answers," a group show at Canal Gallery, is to display work by six artists who undertake, and express in their art, a personal journey of the spirit. Another is to identify the visual links, the common vocabulary of motifs and subjects that appear in art describing such quests. The artists in this particular show follow two general patterns. Some find inspiration in organized religion. Others have taken an individual path. Yet they mine a universal language of archetypes. Architectural motifs, for example, appear in various guises in a high percentage of the objects, no matter the artist's spiritual source. Rochelle Shicoff organized diverse images into a grid format whose tactile, encaustic lines imposed order on her universe of memory, experience and history. Her photographs capture the interior details of synagogues: books, lamps, decorative finials; small drawings and paintings sometimes depict buildings, and in every collage, there is one representation of a hand reaching out. Peter Gregorio worked in much larger scale, painting his memories of the year he spent engaged in volunteer work and contemplative, monastic life in India and Nepal. The best of his paintings distill what must have been a kaleidoscopic jumble of experiences into black and white references to indigenous architecture. The walls in "Nepal Temple VIII," loom above him as vast, flat, dark shapes whose modulated surfaces and edges soften in the blinding white sunlight. Elizabeth Grace Burkhart likewise traveled to India and Nepal, seeking "to restore a spirituality I had lost along the way." Her color photographs abridge her impressions, her solitude and her search. A close-up of the feet of the Hindu goddess Durga becomes a symphony in warm golden orange hues; a shot of the Taj Mahal focuses symbolically only on its reflection in the pool; an image of prayer flags refers to the exuberance of a Tibetan celebration, and to the spirit of the Tibetan peoples. Nona Hatay takes color photographs, too, but she adjusts them in the printing process so that she can create mirror images, enhance light effects, enrich color and even integrate other imagery. Hers are pictures of nature as site of mystery and enlightenment. Sculptor EveLynn Werling combines found materials, some from nature, some from the hardware store, with plaster or clay which she shapes into relief plaques, many of which have vague associations with structural components, especially doorways or entrances. She seems to look within, abstracting her personal awareness and insights into universal signs. Michelle Smith introduces another type of spiritual quest, the pursuit of beauty and meaning. Her black and white photographs of the Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao, Spain represent a temple that is dedicated to art. It is autonomous, impenetrable, shadowy and mysterious, awe inspiring in its scale, sublime in the light gleaming off the polished fabric of its metallic skin. In these images the building functions also as an abstract form, simultaneously organic and hardedge, a study in light and dark, a work of art unto itself. Off the wall "Egg Tempera, an Enduring Tradition," is also in Holyoke, at the Wistariahurst Museum, 238 Cabot St., 534-2216.