Gary Cruz
Gary Cruz is expanding the boundaries between photography and painting by creating large-scale, ethereal abstract works of unique color and form.
Retina, 2021, 69 x 51 in
PP: What does your studio practice look like?
GC: Since my image making is mainly digital I can create anywhere, but it’s at my Manhattan studio where I get to see them in physical form and think through what I’m trying to say and listen what they are telling me. There are a lot of tweaks, re-do’s, throw-aways – and they need time before I see them as finished. Right now, I want the work to occupy a space between a photograph and a painting. I work on several series simultaneously, so I keep my studio neat and orderly because my brain is so messy.
Night Vision, 2022, 54 x 40 in
PP: What do you aim to say through your work?
GC: That we should all take for a closer look- at the world around us and at ourselves. I like the hashtag #lookharder. I also think we should let ourselves luxuriate in the wonder of color, light and discovery. That is vital. I wish I could see the unseeable colors around us and then, show them to you. I also think that digitally made art is valid as analog art – it can have soul.
Blue Iris, 2022, 53 x 39 in
PP: What role do you think artists have in society?
GC: Artists are leaders, soothsayers, visionaries and intuitive scientists - always expanding thought, space and emotion.
Pupil 1, 2022, 30 x 18 in
PP: Where do you see yourself as an artist in 5 years?
GC: I will just keep focused and move forward. Like a kaleidoscope, the work builds, changes, morphs, and keeps expanding. I would like to collaborate with other artists on experiential projects and commercial ones as well. Move the needle - make stuff happen.
For the last four years, Gary Cruz’s practice has focused on the production of abstract painterly images using a variety of digital methods and processes. These new images are at, what he calls, the “Center of Seeing” - closeups of a moment in time and space from the center of his kaleidoscopic videos. These discovered images contain circle, star, or other primal geometric shapes – some resembling mandalas or flowers of a new interior space. Spiritual, psychological, with an emanating quality of light, they are vaguely familiar yet new. Cruz’s accolades include participation in the AIM program with the Bronx Museum of the Arts and recipient of the Pollock-Krasner Grant. His first solo show was at White Columns, New York City in 2003, and most recent solo show I’ll Take you There was with Olympia Project Space, Bushwick, in 2020. He currently lives and works in Manhattan, NYC.
To reach Gary or learn more about his work, see his instagram and website.