Sullivan Goss
AN AMERICAN GALLERY
Celebrating 23 Years of 19th, 20th and 21st Century American Art
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GREGORY BOTTS

(b. 1952)

Contemporary Painter

by Gallery Historians

Gregory Botts developed as a painter in a time when contemporary art focused more heavily on conceptual underpinnings and a work's relationship to critical theory. Working with painters like Paul Georges and Fairfield Porter, Botts worked to reintroduce the figure into painting. Currently, the artist is working to make paintings which speak to this grander transition in the art world as well as his transition from Brooklyn Heights to Abiquiu, New Mexico.

 

Table Of Contents
 

I. Biography

Born in landscape, apprenticed in abstraction and now a seasoned synthesis of the two, Gregory Botts is devoted to the power of color and brush. In spite of his innovation, or perhaps because of it, he is recognized today as a member of the National Academy. Currently living in both New York and New Mexico, the artist chooses to begin his creative process by painting en plein air. However, Botts does not limit himself to the tangible environment. Instead, he focuses on the ever-changing scenery that he interprets as allegory. Unlike his predecessors and contemporaries, Botts brings a modern edge to this deep-rooted subject by reforming his “sketches” in his studio. It is in the city that he alters the initial compositions and paints big, sometimes 10-foot canvases, which become poetically grounded abstractions of his experience. In the final development of his work, Botts brings juxtapositions of abstract surface to naturalist spaces to bear. This is most apparent in his studio ‘scapes’, which are assembled views of the painting’s elements within his studios.

Born in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, Gregory Botts attended the School of Visual Arts in New York City, as well as assisted the artist Paul Georges. He received a scholarship to attend the Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture in Maine. Botts has served as painting instructor at Anderson Ranch Arts Center for the past 5 seasons, at the University of Santa Barbara, California since the 1980s to now 2006, and teaches figure drawing at the National Academy of Design and NY Studio School. Botts is a full time artist. He has exhibited extensively in both solo and group shows across the United States.
 
ASPEN NIGHT #8
2006
30.125 x 24.125 inches
oil on canvas

As the artist prepared to move his studio from New York to New Mexico, he stacked his paintings against the wall. The artist developed a fascination for the works' relationships to each other, for the balance between abstraction and representation, and for the interplay between the Dionysian aspect of his nocturnes and the Appollonian aspect of his yellow color fields.
 

II. EDUCATION

  • 1970-1972 School of Visual Arts, NYC
  • 1973 Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture, Skowhegan, Maine
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    III. TEACHING EXPERIENCE

  • 2005 University of California SB, CCS, Figure Drawing
  • National Academy School, NYC, Figure Drawing
  • 2004 National Academy of Design, NYC, Figure Drawing
  • 2000-2003 Anderson Ranch, Snowmass Village, Colorado, Painting
  • 2002 National Academy of Design, NYC, Master Class in Figure Drawing
  • 2001 New York Studio School, NYC, Summer Painting Program
  • New York Studio School, NYC, Drawing Marathon February
  • Spring Island Painting Workshop, Spring Island, S. Carolina
  • 1999 Landscape Institute, University of California, Santa Barbara, Painting (Summer Session)
  • Anderson Ranch, Snowmass Village, Colorado, Painting (Summer Session)
  • 1998 Landscape Institute, University of California, Santa Barbara, Painting (Summer Session)
  • 1997 Landscape Institute, University of California, Santa Barbara, Painting (Summer Session)
  • 1994 Deep Springs College, Deep Springs, Califonia, Painting (Fall Term)
  • 1981-1991 University of California, Santa Barbara (College of Creative Studies) Painting, Figure Drawing (Annual Spring Quarters)
  • 1980 University of California At Santa Barbara (College of Creative Studies) Painting, Figure Drawing (Full Year)
  • 1978-1979 Ridgewood School of Art, Ridgewood, New Jersey, Beginning Figure Painting and Drawing Art History Foundation
  • 1972-1976 School of Visual Arts, New York Figure Drawing Workshop, Organized by Peter Heinemann
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    IV. AWARDS & GRANTS

  • 2004 Death Valley National Park Artist in Residence Program
  • 2002 Roaring Forks Club Artist in Residence, Aspen, Colorado
  • 1997 Joshua Tree National Monument Artist In Residence Program
  • 1997 National Academy of Design, Elected Member
  • 1993 Adolph Gottlieb Emergency Grant Recipient
  • 1986 American Academy And Institute of Arts and Letters Award For Excellence in Painting
  • 1972 Skowhegan School of Painting, Student Scholarship
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    V. COLLECTIONS & COMMISSIONS

  • Chase Manhattan Bank, NY
  • Denver Art Museum
  • Honolulu Academy of Art, HI
  • IBM, New York
  • Jones, Day, Reavis & Poove Washington D.C.
  • La Jolla Museum of Art
  • Museum of Contemporary Art, Honolulu, HI
  • Progressive Corp, Cleveland, OH
  • Prudential, NY
  • Santa Barbara Museum of Art
  • Shimuzo Corporation, Atlanta, Georgia
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    ASPEN NIGHT #5
    2006
    30.125 x 24.125 inches
    oil on canvas

    The iconography of simple cloud forms, a stylized, painterly aspen grove, and a few simple stars speak to the artist's conviction that contemporary art needs a refreshment in nature. Botts remains, however, unwilling to separate himself entirely from speaking about the history of painting and contemporary critical issues of signification.
     

    VI. SOLO EXHIBITIONS

  • 2006-7 Gregory Botts: Jigsaw Poetry, Sullivan Goss - An American Gallery, Santa Barbara, CA
  • 2004 Salander-O’Reilly Gallery, Two person Show, NY
  • 2001 Art Resources Transfer, New York City
  • 2001 Western Landscapes, Roswell Museum, NM
  • 1997 Paintings from Joshua Tree National Park and the Landscape Institute, College of Creative Studies, University of California at Santa Barbara
  • 1996 Art Resources Transfer, New York, NY
  • 1993 Tony Shafrazi Gallery, New York, NY
  • 1993 Ro Snell Gallery, Santa Barbara, CA
  • 1993 Renée Fotouhi Gallery, East Hampton, NY
  • 1993 University of the Arts (Rosenwald-Wolf Gallery) Philadelphia, PA
  • 1993 Villa of the Sun Paintings, (Catalog essay by Carter Ratcliff)
  • 1991 Anne Plumb Gallery, New York, NY
  • 1990 Anne Plumb Gallery (Catalog essay by Harold Bloom), New York, NY
  • 1989 Anne Plumb Gallery (Catalog essay by David Shapiro), New York, NY
  • 1988 Honolulu Academy of Arts, Honolulu, HI
  • 1988 Freedman Gallery, Albright College, Reading, PA
  • 1988 Anne Plumb Gallery, New York, NY
  • 1987 Earl McGrath Gallery, Los Angeles, CA
  • 1987 Anne Plumb Gallery, New York, NY
  • 1986 Anne Plumb Gallery, New York, NY
  • 1985 Anne Plumb Gallery, New York, NY
  • 1984 Manhattan Art, New York, NY
  • 1984 Salvatore Ala Gallery, New York, NY
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    VII. GROUP EXHIBITIONS

  • 2005 Group Show, Amenoff, Resika, McNeil and Botts, Gerald Peters Gallery, Santa Fe, NM
  • 2004 National Academy of Design, Wolf Kahn selections from the Collection, NAD, NYC
  • 2001-02 Anderson Ranch Faculty Show, Snowmass, Colorado
  • 1999 Small Work Benefit, James Kelley Contemporary, Santa Fe, New Mexico
  • 1998 Interpreting, Rotunda Gallery, Brooklyn, NY
  • 1998 Conversation exhibition with Mary Carlson, Art Resources Transfer, New York, NY
  • 1997 Auction to Benefit Santa Barbara Contemporary Arts Forum, Santa Barbara, CA
  • 1995 Painting in Poetry/Poetry in Painting: Wallace Stevens and Modern Art, Baruch College, NY
  • 1994 The Figure, 1994 (Organized by Sandra Gering Gallery), Deutche Bank Lobby Gallery, NY
  • 1994 25th Anniversary Art Auction, Cleveland Center for Contemporary Art, Cleveland, OH
  • 1994 White Columns Benefit, White Columns, NY
  • 1992 Painting, St. Peter's Church at Citicorp Building, New York, NY
  • 1991 Lost and Found: The Painterly Image II, New York Studio School Art Gallery, New York, NY
  • 1990 Terra Incognita: Contemporary Landscape Painting, Museum of Art, RISD, Providence, RI
  • 1990 Group Show; Richard Green Gallery, Los Angeles, CA
  • 1990 Amnesty International Benefit Exhibition, Germans-Van Eck Gallery, New York, NY
  • 1989 Group Show, Earl McGrath Gallery, Los Angeles, CA
  • 1988 1900 to Now: Modern Art, Rhode Island Collections, Museum of Art. RISD, Providence, RI
  • 1987 Gregory Botts and Roy Fowler, Santa Barbara Contemporary Arts Forum, CA (Catalog essay by Stephen Westfall)
  • 1986 Award Recipients, American Academy of Arts and Letters, New York, NY
  • 1986 Ten Years of Collecting: Selections from the Downe Collection
  • 1986 Wellesley College Museum, Wellesley, MA
  • 1986 Abstraction Landscape, Robin Lockett Gallery, Chicago, IL
  • 1985 Factura, Schlesinger/Boisante Gallery, New York, NY
  • 1985 Drawing 1975-1985, Barbara Toll Fine Arts, New York, NY
  • 1985 Gregory Botts, Christopher Wool. To the Astonishing Horizon, Los Angeles Visual Arts Center, L.A.,CA
  • 1982 Four From New York, Richard Hines Gallery, Seattle, WA
  • 1982 Carl Apfelschnitt, Gregory Botts, Keith Haring, David Kapp
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    VII. PUBLICATIONS

  • 1996 Clouds, Leaves, Waves. A Painter's Poem. Published by Turtle Point Press, NY
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    IX. BIBLIOGRAPHY

    1. McGee, Louis. Review of Clouds, Leaves, Waves. LIBRARY JOURNAL, October 1996.
    2. Newhall, Edith. Review, ARTNEWS, December 1993.
    3. Johnson, Ken. Review, ART IN AMERICA, November 1993.
    4. Henry, Gerrit. Review, ART IN AMERICA, February 1992.
    5. Cyphers, Peggy. Review, ARTSMAGAZINE, Summer, 1991.
    6. Bloom, Harold. ARTSMAGZINE, Summer 1990, "The American Sublime,"(included cover reproduction).
    7. Carrier, David. Review, ART INTERNATIONAL, September 1990.
    8. Schapiro, David. PEQUOD, Summer 1990, "Painting and Poetry's Truth."
    9. Morgan, Robert. Review, ARTSMAGAZINE, Summer 1989
    10. Gardner, Colin. Review, LOS ANGELES TIMES, Dec.11, 1987.
    11. Mueller, Cookie. Review, DETAILS, May 1987.
    12. Indiana, Gary. VILLAGE VOICE, Feb. 25, 1986 "An Opinionated Survey."
    13. Cameron, Dan. ARTSMAGAZINE, September 1985, "The Submerging Figure."
    14. Westfall, Steven. Review, ARTSMAGAZINE, Summer 1990.
     
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    Aspen Crop 1.
    Aspen Crop 2.
    Aspen Night 4.
    Aspen Night 5.
    Aspen Night 7.
    Aspen Night 8.
    Aspen Square, Night Studio 1.
    Aspen Square, Night Studio 3.
    Aspen, Green Stripe 6.
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