Louis Gribaudo

Louis is a Philadelphia, PA based artist and musician. In 1978 he was awarded a full scholarship to The Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts where he studied figure drawing with Marshall Glasier. In 1990, he made the decision to concentrate solely on painting watercolor landscapes and did so until 2006. Through that sixteen year period, his paintings became more abstract and these ideas set the precedent for his current work. In 1994, at the Wayne Art Center, he won the Myrtle Jarvis Watercolor Award for his large watercolor of Sylvester’s Cove, Maine, and in 2007, at The Main Line Center for the Arts, he received the Canson Paper Prize for the mixed media work entitled “Memories of ’54”. His paintings and commissions are included in many private collections.

Statement

"In my current work I employ a process driven call & response approach with the aesthetic goal of balancing shifting degrees of chaos and potential through the orchestration of organic and geometric structures.

I am inspired by diverse sources: patterns(natural & man made), sound waves, cycles, waves, frequencies, urban decay, architectural artifacts, geometry, geology, astronomy, tribal & corporate symbols, icons, technology and commercial graphics. By making art, I endeavor to reveal the mystery that is common to them.

I am drawn to the history of things; to the possibility of different outcomes based on combinations of planned decisions and random events. I am intrigued with how small, repetitive actions consistently applied over the course of time, create complex systems that are greater than the sum of their parts.

My approach is exploratory, reactionary and cathartic. I start with a concept, and follow the cues that the painting process gives me, often using unpredictable means to apply and remove paint, recycling, re-purposing and repositioning. Some decisions are planned, some are not. The result is the consequence of my reactions to previous actions. This process leads to reinvention and discovery, erosion and re assemblage; a play of deliberation and chance."