MIKE LYNCH - REVISITED
30 WORKS FROM AN IMPORTANT PRIVATE COLLECTION JUNE 19 - JULY 17, 2021
FOREWORD One afternoon in the fall of 1983, I looked out the window of the gallery and saw Mike Lynch pedaling up the hill with a package of art strapped to the back of his bike. The package contained several paintings. Each piece was carefully wrapped in brown paper and tied with string. The humble packaging belied the extraordinary paintings found inside. After Mike delivered work, whether for a show or just to supplement the gallery inventory, we would write, call and in more recent years, email a small group of Mike Lynch aficionados to let them know new work had arrived. Inevitably, within a few days collectors would arrive, and the work would be snapped up and taken home to be enjoyed, admired, and cherished. Earlier this year one of these Lynch collectors decided that it was time for the paintings they had been enjoying to return to the community to be enjoyed by the next generation of Mike Lynch fans. In some ways, Mike’s work seems an unlikely candidate for such avid attention. Grain elevators, railroad tracks, small town bars, quiet streets and industrial sites are usually the places we look beyond. But these small, often ignored places play big roles in our everyday lives. Mike paints the places people work, the places people gather, the homes that shelter us and the byways we travel with an eye trained to see and reveal the essential character of our Midwestern world. Mike’s focus on these quiet corners of the world has elevated these humble subjects to the position of architectural and cultural icons. Much of Mike’s work is created on location and at night. Whether at dusk, dawn or under the halo of a streetlight, Mike has chosen times where there is no human activity present but implied in every painting is the sense of that these are places where people are only momentarily out of view. His paintings record the moments we pass by without noticing. Speeding by in your car without seeing the solitary light in the rail yard, you might have looked back and realize it was Mike with his headlamp on painting the grain elevator.
Mikes involvement with Minnesota and our art community has been long and vast. Born and raised in Hibbing, there can be few artists more Minnesotan or more distinguished than Mike Lynch. He attended the Town Hall Art School (Grand Marais Art Colony) in 1954 and 1956 and the Minneapolis School of Art (MCAD) in the late 1950’s. His dedication to making art began early in his life. In a 1953 article in the Duluth News-Tribune titled, Hibbing’s Painting Prodigy Lynch was asked what he plans to do in his future, the 14-year-old Lynch is quoted “Be an artist”. Does he plan to teach? “No. Paint and draw." How will he make his living? “I’ll sell pictures.” And that he did. Mike has been exhibiting his work for over 60 years. 1960 marked his first solo show at the Kilbride-Bradley Gallery and his most recent show at Groveland Gallery took place in 2018. Over the years he showed his work at the Kilbride-Bradley Gallery, Martin Gallery, Stevens Avenue Gallery and since 1979, Groveland Gallery. Mike has received numerous grants, fellowships and awards throughout his career including from the McKnight Foundation, Bush Foundation, Minnesota State Arts Board, and in 2003 he was awarded the Distinguished Artist Award from the McKnight Foundation. His work is included in museum, corporate and private collections throughout the Midwest. In 2020, his archive was acquired by the Minnesota Historical Society. For nearly 50 years Mike Lynch and Groveland Gallery have presented Twin Cities art collectors and appreciators a body of work that and reflects and pays tribute to our Minnesota landscape. I am delighted and honored to offer these remarkable painting to another generation of Mike Lynch aficionados.
Sally Johnson Director, Groveland Gallery June 2021
MIKE LYNCH
Mike Lynch was born in Hibbing, Minnesota in 1938. He studied painting and drawing with Birney Quick at the Grand Marais Art Colony, attended the Minneapolis School of Art (now MCAD) and also studied at the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam. Over the past sixty years, Lynch has exhibited throughout Minnesota, including a solo exhibition at the Minneapolis Institute of Arts. He was awarded McKnight Foundation Fellowships in 1983, 1987 and 1996, received a Bush Foundation Fellowship in 1985 and the Minnesota State Arts Board Fellowship in 1991. In 2002 Lynch completed a commission for the Minnesota Percent for Art in Public Places. The 10-foot by 18-foot painting View of Saint Paul from Indian Mounds Park is located in the Department of Revenue Building. In 2003, Lynch was awarded the McKnight Foundation’s Distinguished Artist Award. The Minnesota Historical Society acquired Lynch’s artist archive in 2020.
Untitled 1984 | watercolor $2,400.00 image: 10 x 13.75" | frame: 19.25 x 22.75"
Williams Pipeline, Superior Station 1991 | oil on panel $7,000.00 image: 16 x 22" | frame: 21.75 x 27.75"
N. 17th Ave, 2nd Street 1989 | watercolor & pencil $2,500.00 image: 31 x 40" | frame: 32 x 41"
South 62nd Ave, Raleigh Street 1993 | ink $1,800.00 image: 6 x 8" | frame: 15 x 16.5"
Abandoned Watchtower 1989 | watercolor and ink $2,400.00 image: 7 x 11.5" | frame: 16.5 x 20.5"
West End Iron and Steel 1994 | oil on panel $3,200.00 image: 7.5 x 11.75" | frame: 11.5 x 16"
Pillsbury's Best 1994 | oil on canvas $11,000.00 image: 31 x 40" | frame: 32 x 41"
Pillsbury Mill and the River 1993 | oil on panel $7,500.00 image: 22 x 16" | frame: 24 x 19"
Painter in Hat 2005 | oil on panel $3,500.00 image: 12.5 x 9" | frame: 17 x 13"
Duluth: Bend Tec on Rice's Pond 1992 | watercolor, pencil, ink and Chinese white $2,400.00 image: 8 x 12" | frame: 15 x 19"
Storage Tanks, Long Lake, Roseville 1989 | ink and watercolor $2,400.00 image: 8.5 x 14.5" | frame: 18 x 23.5"
Untitled (Elevator on a Misty Night, Superior) 1995 | ink wash and watercolor $2,200.00 image: 9 x 11" | frame: 18.5 x 20"
New Yard Shanty 1991 | oil on panel $3,800.00 image: 11.5 x 16.5” image | frame: 15 x 20”
Yard Shanty 1993 | oil on panel $3,800.00 image: 10 x 16" | frame: 15 x 21"
Rainy Night - The New Yard Shanty - Kasota & 280 Mpls 5/29/91 1991 | pencil $1,500.00 image: 5.25 x 8" | frame: 17.75 x 18.25"
Night Watchman (Pop at the Mine) 9/25 c. 1970 | lithograph $1,050.00 image: 12 x 8" | frame: 20.5 x 16"
Night Watchman artist's proof 1987 | lithograph $1,050.00 image: 8 x 10" | frame: 17 x 20.75
Rooms & Apts 45/50 c. 1975 | lithograph $975.00 image: 9 x 12" | frame: 17.5 x 20"
House by the Road 54/100 1989 | lithograph $1,050.00 image: 9 x 13" | frame: 17 x 21"
Moose Junction 1985 | pencil $800.00 image: 9 x 12" | frame: 14.5 x 17.5"
Untitled 1994 | pencil and watercolor $2,200.00 image: 8.5 x 12" | frame: 15 x 18.5"
Untitled (Moon and Water Tower) 1978 | watercolor $2,500.00 image: 13 x 11" | frame: 20 x 16.5"
Light on Green House 1991 | pencil and watercolor $2,000.00 image: 7 x 11" | frame: 16 x 19"
Railyard, Hot Day 1991 | ink, pencil and watercolor $2,000.00 image: 8.5 x 11.5" | frame: 16 x 19"
Steam Shovel 2006 | oil on canvas $8,000.00 image: 22 x 23" | frame: 29 x 30"
Bridge Over Morton Road 2007 | oil on panel $3,000.00 image: 9 x 14" | frame: 11 x 16"
Studio Interior c. 1987 | ink wash $1,800.00 image: 12 x 9" | frame: 18 x 15"
Untitled (Stuffed Bear) oil on canvas $5,500.00 image: 24 x 32" | frame: 26 x 34"
House on a Hill 1991 | pencil and watercolor $2,200.00 image: 9 x 12" | frame: 13.5 x 16.5"
Untitled (Fraser Shipyard, Superior) oil on linen $7,000.00 image: 17.5 x 27" | frame: 24 x 34"
Backyards 1989 | oil on panel $6,000.00 image: 13 x 21.5" | frame: 18.5 x 27"
Untitled (Tracks at the Mines) oil on canvas $9,500.00 image: 27.5 x 47.5" | frame: 32 x 52"
Smitty's Bar 1993 | oil on panel $3,500.00 image: 9 x 12.5" | frame: 14 x 17.5"
Camels 2017 | oil on panel $2,800.00 image: 9.5 x 8.5" | frame: 13.5 x 12.5"
Red Wings 2004 | oil on panel $3,200.00 image: 31 x 40" | frame: 32 x 41"
Whiskey 2005 | oil on panel $3,200.00 image: 12 x 8.5" | frame: 16 x 12.5"
Door to Storage Room II 1989 | watercolor, ink and gouache $2,500.00 image: 11 x 8.5" | frame: 20.5 x 16.5"
Door to Storage Room 1989 | pencil $1,800.00 image: 12 x 9" | frame: 21.5 x 18"
Clubhouse 1989 | $2,600.00 image: 11 x 8.5" | frame: 20.5 x 16.5"
25 Groveland Terrace, Minneapolis, MN 55403 | www.grovelandgallery.com
To purchase artwork please contact: info@grovelandgallery.com or 612-377-7800