Visiting Artist: Gregory Euclide

I wasn't sure what to expect from Gregory Euclide's artist talk. I'm glad to say that I was delightfully pleased, even though the talk was delayed for about 10 minutes. His presentation was very lively, and he was very keen on showing and explaining his process on his art-making. 

Euclide was born and raised in Wisconsin. He received his Bachelor of Fine Arts from the University of Wisconsin, and later received his BFA from Minneapolis College of Art and Design.

His art is influenced by land. Landscape portraits have a tendency to be flat, stuck in a frame. However, Euclide wants to break out of the frame, to push what it means to make a landscape painting. He's interested in the potential and history of areas, the cause and effects, and the movement and energy within a place.

In this particular painting, Euclide actually painted multiple landscapes and then rips them. Well, he doesn't rip them off, but he tucks them in different areas. It plays with the passage of time. Each plane of the landscape shows a different moment. Each time he painted with watercolors, they would actually drip down and the "shelves," created by tucking the paper in, would collect the water. This was not only representing the passage of time, but in the process, it was also repeating how it was actually happening in time.

 

Euclide brought up how in landscape history, everything was in a frame. (He also mentions his process where he'll start with an abstract gesture, but he'll have no idea how they'll turn out.) But this was only the starting point with his sculptural landscapes.

He wondered what a frame was used for. Generally, it's supposed to protect the artwork - or, so we think. Instead of having a flat surface for a frame, Euclide pushes the glass out as if the artwork is the only thing containing the artwork. It also changes what it means to be a landscape painting as one can move around this piece. There are multiple views in his work, but in landscape history, it's stuck on one plane; you can't move around the space.

Which is why he wondered why we use white, rectangular pieces of paper. The artist may get the paper in that fashion because it was easier to package and ship out. When we see a landscape, we don't generally think "it's white and in a rectangle," but most artwork is contained within this space.

His approach to installations differs from his on-a-whim work because he has to figure out how everything is going to be placed. Then he has to figure out on how it must be deconstructed as installations in museums are usually thrown out.