My abstract drawings and paintings are the visual record of exploration, criticism, trial and error, and discovery. The process is both determined and spontaneous; it includes critical reworking and accident as I look for something I haven’t seen before. There is little pre-planning, a painting begins with a color and gestural brushstrokes. In response to what I see on the canvas, colors are added, composition is considered. The characteristics of the media contribute substantially to the “look” of each piece. Composing an arresting image with line, shapes and colors is my primary goal. In the process, thoughts and feelings become associated with the forms thus influencing the direction and outcome of the work.
“In any kind of creative work a point is reached where our power of free choice comes to an end. The work assumes a life of its own, which offers its creator only the alternative of accepting or rejecting it. A mysterious “presence” reveals itself, which gives the work a living personality of its own.” –Anton Ehrenzweig
Artist Biography
In Memoriam
1940 - 2017
The Following is an Article from 3rdstreetgallery.com:
Born in Baltimore, MD, Marjorie Grigonis lived and worked in her studio in Philadelphia for the past 30 years. She attended George Washington University and The Corcoran School of Art in Washington DC, receiving her MFA from the University of North Carolina in Chapel Hill in 1965. Grigonis taught art for 14 years in the Fine Arts departments of Rutgers University, New Brunswick, NJ; Middlesex College in Edison, NJ; the College of Charleston, Charleston, SC; and for one year in the Art Department of The Baldwin School in Bryn Mawr.
Ms. Grigonis was one of the founders of the Amos Eno Gallery in NYC in 1973, and was a recent past director of the 3rd Street Gallery, a co-operative gallery in Old City, Philadelphia. In 1992 Grigonis was the recipient of a residency at the Vermont Studio School; in 1995 she was awarded first prize in painting in Art in Pennsylvania ‘95 at the State Museum in Harrisburg; in 2009 awarded the Van Sciver prize in the annual juried show at The Woodmere Art Museum in Philadelphia.
She spent part of every year for the last three decades on the rocky coast of Maine, and has visited other countries whenever possible. The varied environments and traveling itself influenced her work. She repeatedly visited Japan, France, Germany, Mexico, China and Italy. A trip to Morocco and the Sahara was the inspiration for a group of paintings.
Ms. Grigonis’s solo exhibtions included The Knapp Gallery (Philadelphia, PA), 3rd Street Gallery (Philadelphia), the Newark (NJ) Museum, Maine Maritime Academy(Castine, ME), Amos Eno Gallery (NYC) and the inaugural show for the Monsanto Gallery at Lander College (SC). She has shown at the State Museums of New Jersey, Pennsylvania, North Carolina and South Carolina, Woodmere Art Museum, Mint Museum (Charlotte, NC) and various private galleries. Her paintingsand prints are in the collections of the University of NC, the Medical University of SC, Pennsylvania Hospital, Wyeth Ayerst International, Inc., and in numerous private collections, in the US, France, England and Germany. Her work, drawings, paintings, prints, has always been abstract, the styles varying over four decades.
University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, NC BA (1963), MFA (1965)
Collection
University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, NC Medical University of South Carolina, Charleston, SC Pennsylvania Hospital, Philadelphia, PA Wyeth Ayerst International, Inc., St. Davids, PA
Numerous private collections in the US, and in Japan, Germany, France and the UK
Professional Experience
1990 – 1991 Baldwin School, Bryn Mawr, PA Upper School Art: Painting, Drawing, Printmaking
1977 – 1984 College of Charleston, Charleston, SC Department of Fine Arts: Painting, Drawing
1975 – 1976 Rutgers University, New Brunswick, NJ Department of Art: Beginning Studio, Painting I and II
1971 – 1976 Middlesex College, Edison, NJ Department of Fine Arts: Two-dimensional Design, Painting I and II, Introduction to Art
1971 – 1972 Newark Museum, Newark, NJ Arts Workshop: Painting
Exhibitions
Solo
2015 Horizon Theatre, Norristown, PA
2012 Present Tense, 3rd Street Gallery, Philadelphia, PA
Gallery at the Program in Gender and Sexuality Studies, Princeton University, Princeton, NJ
2010 The Knapp Gallery, Philadelphia, PA
3rd Street Gallery, Philadelphia, PA
2008 3rd Street Gallery, Philadelphia, PA
2005 3rd Street Gallery, Philadelphia, PA
2002 Maine Maritime Academy, Castine, ME
2001 Deer Isle Art Gallery, Deer Isle, ME
2000 3rd Street Gallery, Philadelphia, PA
1999 Cosmopolitan Club, Philadelphia, PA
Spring Mill Art Gallery, Conshohocken, PA
1998 3rd Street Gallery, Philadelphia, PA
1996 Deer Isle Art Gallery, Deer Isle, ME
1992 The Kirkbride Gallery, The Institute of Pennsylvania Hospital, Philadelphia, PA
1991 The Baldwin School Art Galley, Bryn Mawr, PA
The Monsanto Gallery, Lander College, Greenwood, SC Inaugural Exhibition
William Halsey Gallery, College of Charleston, Charleston, SC
