Di Fronzo + Grossman Points of view

Group Show

FRANCIS DI FRONZO + LISA GROSSMAN

POINTS OF VIEW

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EvokeContemporary.com

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Francis Di Fronzo

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Lisa Grossman

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Points of View is an exhibition of the masterful works of two artists with very different points of view. Lisa Grossman, a plein air painter from Kansas, and Francis Di Fronzo, a studio painter from California, share EVOKE’s main exhibition gallery in this spectacular September show.

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rancis Di Fronzo depicts highly realistic scenes of the natural world in his paintings, which are both beautiful and poetic, but also deeply mysterious, and at times ominous and foreboding. His grandiose and panoramic landscape paintings, nuanced in both color and composition, reveal a consistent portrayal of nature with a sense of romance and mystery.

Just two years ago his work had distinct contrasts to this new anthology, yet there is a clear esence that pervades and makes it undeniably clear that this artist knows his voice and uses it masterfully. His ability to evolve and keep moving while maintaining the core message and spirit of the work is an extraordinary and highly admirable skill. The Earth’s Sharp Edge bears significance as a milestone in Di Fronzo’s career as he faces a lingering apparition from an intense era of his formative past.

The artist received his graduate degree at The Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, and his work is reminiscent of the regionalist style of Andrew Wyeth. Di Fronzo’s beginnings as a realist are perfectly showcased in his impeccable approach to the light of the sky, desolate deserts, abandoned trains and houses that inhabit his recent paintings.

Born in California in 1969, he received his B.F.A at the University of California, Fullerton. He then came east to study at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, where he earned his M.F.A. in 1998. In 2004 Di Fronzo was awarded the very selective Pew Fellowship, an honor granted to only four painters every four years, as well as the Stobbart Foundation Fellowship in the Arts Award and the Liquitex Art in America University Award. In 2007, Di Fronzo was featured in the June issue of Fine Art Connoisseur Magazine’s article “Making Their Mark: Three to Watch” American Art Collector interviewed Di Fronzo in the March 2008 issue editorial article “Dreaming the Impossible” and again in 2009 with “The Space Within”.

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The Prospector Arrives, oil over watercolor and gouache on panel, 49 x 31

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Where Are You Now, oil over watercolor and gouache on panel, 30 x 60

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You Are the Sea Upon Which I Float, oil over watercolor and gouache on panel, 19 x 62

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The Sleepers Dark Part-I, oil over watercolor and gouache on panel, 19 x 60

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Heathen, oil over watercolor and gouache on panel, 30 x 62

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The Things I Never Told You (Part 1), oil over watercolor and gouache on panel, 30 x 62

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isa Grossman’s atmospheric aerial view paintings in oil demonstrate her command of her medium and her unique perspective and appreciation of the land.

Lisa Grossman moved to the Kansas prairie from Pennsylvania and immediately was captivated by its vast flatness and its infinite variety. Flying into Kansas on a flight from Los Angeles her plane flew low over the Kansas River, which she had often painted from the ground. The light reflected on the ribbon of river in a darkening landscape inspired her to fly the length of the 171-mile river eight or ten times to experience its physical changes over time and in the quickly changing light of dusk.

She has painted enough and painted her subject enough that she is able to turn off her critical thinking and to react intuitively and immediately in a “pure response to what is impacting me at that moment.” She explains, “A lot of it is impulse. The energy coming from the pure joy and reverie of being in a setting finds expression in the paint and is embedded in it.” The fluidity of oil paint allows her to paint freely in the open allowing it not only to capture the energy of the moment, but also the stray bug and wind blown debris.

Grossman likens her painting to haiku, capturing a moment of awareness with an economy of means.

American Art Collector, September 2013

“For nearly twenty years my prairie work, primarily plein air, has been a sustained meditation on open spaces. The power of this place, and my visceral responses to weather and shifts in light, color, and seasons, have been the true subjects of my work. My work has always been about shifts and the ephemeral. I’m not so much trying to freeze moments in time as much as I am attempting to convey my experience of them. My wish is to share some of what I’ve discovered, offering a new way a seeing these waterways and open prairie spaces that hopefully, ultimately, awakens a new appreciation for them.”

Lisa Grossman

Selected Museums + Collections Spencer Museum of Art, University of Kansas Nerman Museum of Contemporary Art, Kansas Beach Museum of Art, Kansas State University

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Pink Light Shifts, oil on canvas, 26 x 28

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Sharp Light from the Prairie River, oil on canvas, 24 x 72

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Across the Floodplain and Back, oil on canvas, 48 x 72

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Braided Sand, oil on canvas, 44 x 48

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Bright River, oil on canvas, 40 x 30

Flatwater-Black , oil on canvas, 40 x 36

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Converge, oil on canvas, 26 x 28

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Circling , oil on canvas, 60 x 72

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Reflect, oil on canvas, 36 x 72

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We hope to see you soon!

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