The artist's West-inspired woodscapes exhibit in Houston coincides with the Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo.

BY DANA JOSEPH 01.10.17 - From the January 2018 issue.

Montrose Tale. Photography: Jeffrey Scott French

Montrose Tale. Photography: Jeffrey Scott French

Fine artist Jeffrey Brosk has always lived in New York City, but he has identified with and celebrated the West in his art since his first trip there in 1971. Geographically, his fourth-floor studio in SoHo is far removed from the deserts, mesas, valleys, and mountains he loves. But spiritually, while he’s creating, it’s close indeed. Of late, Brosk has been working on West-inspired woodscapes for a show in Houston he purposely scheduled to coincide with the city’s 2018 rodeo and livestock show. “This was done because of the big influence the Western landscape has had on my work — and also because I have not missed that rodeo for 25 years,” he says. In anticipation of his upcoming exhibition, we talked with Brosk about how the Western landscape became his muse.

“As a young architecture grad student in the early 1970s, I had volunteered to work for Paolo Soleri, a well-known visionary architect, doing construction at the Arcosanti project near Prescott, Arizona. I thought if I was to be an architect I needed some building experience. I did learn about pouring concrete and other construction methods, but the most important experience was seeing the expansive Western landscape for the first time. This experience was the most important visual event in my career. It totally changed my artistic and spiritual view of the world. I cannot overemphasize the spiritual impact the Western landscape had and continues to have on my life view. It remains my spiritual and aesthetic guide.

“When I turned from architecture to fine art, I initially used wood as a medium because it was more affordable than concrete and steel. But I started to be drawn to the beauty of it and was taken with the possibility of collaborating with wood as a distillation of the larger notion of nature. Today, my whole body of work in wood can be seen as an homage to the Western landscape — it is abstracted and distilled in all my pieces. In some, I have undulated wood to bring to mind the wavelike prairies. In others, wood that has been stained then partially sanded can evoke the sky or flowing rivers. The texture and grain of the wood might recall details in canyon walls or the light and shadow of the plains.

“My wife, Patti, and I often horseback ride and hike in remote areas of Western states to experience the beauty, spiritual nature of the landscape, and the power of the expansive vistas. I’m always learning visual lessons on these outings. The first time I saw Monument Valley, I realized that a sculpture should have an impact from a distance, and that when you approach it there should be details that are not visible until you get closer. The Western landscape has taught me so much — not just about things like perspective, scale, and the play of light and shadow, but also about myself and how to live life every day.

“The exploration of the power and majesty of nature in the western United States is critical to my inspiration. There is beauty in all environments, but the Western landscape touches something in my inner soul that has been a continual blessing.”

Jeffrey Brosk’s one-man show Shadow Space will be on view March 8 through April 7, at Gremillion & Co. Fine Art Inc. in Houston. Find more on the artist at jeffreybrosk.com and jeffbrosk.com.

Meet Ron Gremillion of Gremillion & Co. Fine Art in Rice Village

BY VOYAGEHOUSTON STAFF 06.21.17

Ron Gremillion at Gallery

Today we’d like to introduce you to Ron Gremillion.

Ron, please share your story with us. How did you get to where you are today?
I began the company in 1980 after 10 years with a New York publishing company dealing primarily with small edition original prints. Since my degree is in painting, those years provided invaluable business experience and clientele required to start the company. During my first visit to New York in 1970, it was recommended that I read an interview with the renowned dealer Daniel-Henry Kahnweiler. When asked how he came to be an art dealer, the essence of his answer was “…to be an intermediary between (artists) and the public, to clear their way and to spare them financial anxieties. If the profession of art dealer has any moral justification, it can only be that.” This appeared to me to be the very thing I was looking to do and it came with the benefit of being morally justifiable. That immediately became and remains our mission statement.

Has it been a smooth road?
A few years ago, I read an interview with someone of note in the fashion industry. I assume he was approximately the age I am now, because when asked a similar question about his career, he replied that it was only in being able to look back over his career in decades that he realized it couldn’t have happened any other way. I felt that this was somehow profound. I feel very fortunate that I can honestly say the road has been mostly smooth. I credit this primarily to the wonderful city of Houston and the extraordinary group of people who have devoted their careers to this company.

So, as you know, we’re impressed with Gremillion & Co. Fine Art, Inc. – tell our readers more, for example what you’re most proud of as a company and what sets you apart from others.
Today we represent approximately 50 artists: painters, sculptors and printmakers working throughout the United States and Europe. I’m most proud of the longstanding relationships we enjoy with this group of artists, as well as the many relationships, we so value, with clients who have become our close friends through the years.

Our conceptual aspirations are expressed by a tagline in our logo, “Encouraging Thoughtful Perception.” We encourage those who are interested in enriching their lives to take advantage of the unique opportunity the gallery’s concept has to offer.

Let’s touch on your thoughts about our city – what do you like the most and least?
I moved from here from Dallas in 1971. My favorite thing about this city is its people and the warmth they exude. We feel so fortunate to have participated in varied ways within the community, particularly regarding opportunities to support and partner with the many charities and organizations that help make Houston such a world class city.

I try to stay positive, so it’s difficult for me to answer a question which so pointedly asks for a negative one. However, there are a few things, like leaf blowers, machines that make unnecessary loud beeping noises when in reverse and those people who feel obligated to share their cell phone conversations with everyone within a fifty foot radius. That said, this “least” list is ubiquitous in our society as a whole, and not peculiar to our city.

Contact Info:

Ann S. Adams Exhibition
Annex Building
Caprice Pierucci Exhibition
Gremillion & Co. Fine Art, Inc. Main Gallery
Steven Alexander Exhibition

Image Credit:
Exhibition images by Harwood Taylor

The Secret World of the Menil’s Montrose Bungalows: These Aren’t Just Cute Cottages

BY CATHERINE D. ANSPON, PHOTOGRAPHY CASEY DUNN 08.03.15

So proud to see our own Bob Russell featured in this insightful and inspiring profile on his home in this months PaperCity Magazine.  Below is the feature on Bob's home written by Catherine D. Anspon, with beautiful photographs by Casey Dunn. To view the full article, please click here. 

Artist Bob Russell contemplates his next step after a banner year.

Artist Bob Russell contemplates his next step after a banner year.

The Russell's airy living room with mid-century furniture culled from auctions, yard sales and antiquing.

The Russell's airy living room with mid-century furniture culled from auctions, yard sales and antiquing.

Judy Russell relaxes in their breakfast room at a sturdy antique oak pedestal table, from her family's home in Bellaire.

Judy Russell relaxes in their breakfast room at a sturdy antique oak pedestal table, from her family's home in Bellaire.

For the second in our series of lives inside the illusive Menil-gray bungalows that surround The Menil Collection, we venture into two of the cottages — the homes of artist Amber Eagle and her artisan husband, Guillermo Rosas, and artist Bob Russell and his wife, mid-century design maven Judy Russell. Discover the bliss of living small and purposefully, shaded by history and across the street from one of the world’s most storied private museums.

CHEZ JUDY AND BOB RUSSELL
The Russells have rented the charming circa-1930s Branard Street bungalow in the de Menil enclave since 2012. (They were recently joined by her mom, nonagenarian baker and ace bridge player Kathleen Sturm.) The couple met during their undergraduate days — Judy remembers Bob walking her to her car at the University of Houston, “and that was it.” They have been married 44 years, with a grown son and daughter and their first grandchild on the way. The Russells have feathered their diminutive nest with his artworks; a shared collection of paintings, works on paper and sculpture; enticing rocks and mineral specimens; and well-edited furniture and design finds that tilt to the Mad Men era — evidence of Judy’s seven-year tenure at Sunset Settings. (She now works for UT School of Nursing at the Texas Medical Center.)

But what occurs outside the bungalow is even more important. “I can walk out my front door and almost touch four different world-class art pavilions,” says Bob. “I love the energy of the neighborhood.” We first made Bob’s acquaintance during visits to Gremillion & Co., where this one-time rock ’n’ roll musician who studied architecture in college has long worked as a gallerist. I had known Bob for years when one day he invited me to visit the home where he and Judy were living at the time, in another Menil-owned property. The startlingly beautiful work on view presaged his current well-received career as an artist. (Recent exhibitions include a one-person show at the Jung Center, his solo this spring at Colquitt dealer D.M. Allison Gallery and inclusion in the edgy “Wet” group show curated by Donna Tennant and Henry Hunt at the Williams Tower Gallery.)

What’s compelling about Russell’s work is its feeling of being created in a bygone era — one surmises living in the bungalow reinforces this sensitivity. His collages are remarkable, but in a nuanced way: Combining paper, torn bits of canvas and pencil markings, these understated works possess a nocturnal air informed by cubism and precise geometry. There’s always an open-porch policy at bungalow Russell: The couple entertains in the best way possibly, informally and organically. Bloody Mary Sundays, dropins by neighbors (including our next profile, Amber Eagle), relatives and a small stream of other fascinating visitors as well as a friendly neighborhood-fed non-feral cat make for a sense of community, all within this leafy allée footsteps from the Twombly Gallery, across from the Menil. “After living near Rice University, in Austin and a Houston downtown loft and having wonderful memories of them all, this home has been the best,” Judy says.

Joan Steinman featured on the cover of My Table April/May 2015 Issue

Congratulations to our artist Joan Steinman for her featured cover on My Table: Houston's Dining Magazine. A big thank you to My Table for including this bio on Joan inside the front cover:

Born in Beaumont Texas, artist Joan Steinman has been painting in Houston for nearly 30 years. “My work has always been influenced by the light and color of my environment. Simple ordinary objects become extraordinary and part of a larger array of color and complex patterns that transform familiar shapes around me into visual energy.” See more of Joan Steinman’s work at Gremillion & Co. Fine Art (2501 Sunset Blvd.) or at www.joansteinman.com.

Steven Alexander awarded a Pollock-Krasner Foundation Grant for 2015

We are pleased to announce that Steven Alexander has been awarded a Pollock-Krasner Grant for 2015. This grant supports the artists' personal and/or professional expenses for one year. Since its inception in 1985, the Foundation has awarded over 61 million dollars to artists in 76 countries. Congratulations to Steven on this award, which comes just before the opening of his exhibtion here with us at Gremillion & Co. Fine Art, Inc. next Thursday, April 9th.  

Pollock-Krasner grants have enabled artists to create new work, purchase needed materials and pay for studio rent, as well as their personal and medical expenses. Past recipients of Pollock-Krasner grants acknowledge their critical impact in allowing concentrated time for studio work, and in preparing for exhibitions and other professional opportunities such as accepting a residency. 

The Pollock-Krasner Foundation was established in 1985 to assist individual working artists of merit with financial need through the generosity of Lee Krasner (1908-1984), a leading abstract expressionist painter and widow of Jackson Pollock. 

All images were taken by Steven Alexander at his home and studio in Dalton, Pennsylvania.

 

John Pavlicek featured in the December 2014 Houston Modern Luxury

We are thrilled to see John Pavlicek's upcoming exhibition on the Houston Magazine Calender, alongside one of his beautiful pieces.  Please join us for his opening reception on Thursday evening from 6 - 8 pm.