An Irrepressible Sense of Improvisation Keeps Gronk Grinning

FACES

“Final outcomes are not that exciting to me,” says Los Angeles-based artist Gronk, about his colorful and texture-filled paintings. “I get most excited about the process of making the work--because I’m never sure what’s going to happen next.

“I work narratively,” continued the talkative artist, whose work from the last four years is featured in a retrospective of 20 paintings opening Monday at East Los Angeles College. “I’m almost like a mystery writer--I keep on painting, but I don’t quite know who did it.”

Although he said that there is a sense of improvisation in his work, Gronk pointed out that he always starts with “lots and lots of research,” such as that that he did for his 1980s series “The Titanic.” But, sometimes, that research doesn’t come from books.

“I’m using my city as part of my information,” says the artist, who does not drive, and therefore spends much of his time in the neighborhood around his spacious downtown studio. “I go out and bring back things from my city, things like overheard conversations--and I might use that for a body of work.”

Gronk, whose easy grin makes him seem almost like a mischievous teen-ager with a bag of tricks up his sleeve, talks about his work as though he isn’t really responsible for it, or as if he were painting it unconsciously. He talks of figures that “appear” and themes that “creep in.”

Such is the case with his newest body of work, “China Is Near,” which is featured in a one-man gallery show opening this week in Seattle. The series will also be seen here at Saxon-Lee Gallery in September.

“I’m using a lot of boxers, big boxers with big gloves--and I don’t quite know where they came from,” he says. “It’s probably just my way of struggling with my situation in the art world.”

When asked to explain that struggle, Gronk says trying to make it in the art world is “a constant battle that can be very deadly,” especially for artists who try to maintain integrity in their work.

“It really is a struggle,” he says. Then the grin returns as he adds, “And I’m winning!”

THE SCENE

Artists Contributing To the Solution (ACTS), a group of artists dealing with global environmental issues, is calling on all L.A. and Orange County artists to join in an Earth Day banner “Hang Out” event on April 22. The organization is encouraging all artists to hang banners out of their studio windows that day to “increase public awareness of the ecology issues of Earth Day and signal their own personal commitment.” Said Janice De Loof, an organizer of the event: “In this whole thing of changing our environment and the way we live, we have to start with ourselves. And we, as artists, have the tools, and I think we can make a difference in terms of raising people’s consciousness about this issue.” ACTS is requesting that all banners include either the image of the planet or the word “earth,” and that participating artists send the organization photographs of their banners. For information, call De Loof at: (714) 526-5071.

OVERHEARD:

A blond woman in black tights and cowboy boots argued with a male friend in an aqua jacket and bow tie about works by painter Lawrence Gipe during his crowded weekday opening at Karl Bornstein Gallery last week. “Gloom and doom--I think it’s depressing,” said the athletic-looking man of Gipe’s paintings of towering locomotives and architectural facades. “No,” replied the woman. “I find it masculine, powerful. It’s got positive energy.” “No,” said the man. “I say death and destruction.”

CURRENTS:

After 50 years in operation, USC’s Fisher Gallery has finally received accreditation from the American Assn. of Museums. “When you are accredited, you achieve a certain status in the community--it’s acknowledged that you function on a certain level,” said the gallery’s director, Selma Holo, as she noted that only about 600--or 10%--of the country’s museums have received the accreditation. Holo said that while the accreditation will not directly change museum operations, it will positively affect many areas. “You’ll begin to see . . . more daring shows,” she said, noting that the gallery will be able to be “more ambitious” and to “borrow better objects because (collectors and other institutions) will know that we can be trusted.” In addition, she said, even fund-raising may come a bit easier. “It just gives us a better standard; It’s as if we’re legitimized,” she said.

DEBUTS

Prominent Swiss artist Markus Raetz has his first West Coast museum exhibition at La Jolla Museum of Contemporary Art. The show, which opens Saturday and runs through June 3, was organized by the Museum fur Gegenwartskunst in Basel, Switzerland. Approximately 100 of Raetz’s works, including notebooks, drawings, watercolors, small sculptures and recent installations, will be on view.

HAPPENING

Santa Monica artist John Baldessari, whose important retrospective exhibition is currently on view at the Museum of Contemporary Art, will speak about his work at MOCA next Sunday. Dubbed “An Enchanting Afternoon with the Artist,” the talk begins at 3 p.m.

Artist James Rosenquist will be at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art on Saturday for the screening of a film documenting the creation of his latest suite of mural-sized prints, “Welcome to the Water Planet and House of Fire,” which are currently on view at the Museum of Modern Art, New York, through May 1. Following the 3 p.m. film, the artist, who has a show of new graphics opening Saturday at Glenn Dash Gallery on La Brea Avenue, will discuss his work, which reveals his concerns about the Earth’s precarious ecological state. Information: (213) 857-6000.

An appraisal clinic by specialists from Butterfield & Butterfield auctioneers will be held Friday from 10 a.m.-noon and 1-4 p.m. at the Palos Verdes Art Center, 5504 W. Crestridge Road, Rancho Palos Verdes. Registration fee is $10; cost for appraisals is $5 per item. Information: (213) 541-2479.

‘Nine Mexican Masters: Confrontations and Controversies,” a new seven-session UCLA Extension course analyzing the work of 20th-Century artists including Diego Rivera, Jose Clemente Orozco, David Alfaro Siqueiros, Rufino Tamayo and Francisco Toledo, begins Thursday. The class, which runs from 7-10 p.m. each Thursday, will include a presentation by contemporary Mexican artist Roberto Gil de Montes, who now lives in Los Angeles. The course fee is $195. Information: (213) 206-8503).

Beth Kleid contributed to this column.