Virgil Grotfeldt

All That Is

November 8, 2019 through January 4, 2020

Public Opening Reception: Friday, November 8^th from 6:00 to 8:00 pm

Deborah Colton Gallery is pleased to present Virgil Grotfeldt: All That Is. This dynamic and powerful exhibition of paintings and mixed media works encompasses the entire gallery and is on view through January 4th, 2020. There is a public opening reception on Friday, November 8^th from 6:00 to 8:00 pm.

Virgil Grotfeldt was born in 1948 in Decatur, Illinois. He earned a bachelor’s degree in art education from Eastern Illinois University in 1971 and a master’s degree at Tyler School of Art in Philadelphia in 1974. He moved to Houston in 1977, where he lived and worked until his passing in 2009.

As an established working artist, Virgil Grotfeldt holds an impressive exhibition history with over one hundred and fifty solo and group shows world-wide. Grotfeldt’s works are included in the permanent collection of the Menil Collection, Houston, Texas; Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, New York; Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, Texas; Dallas Museum of Art, Dallas, Texas; El Paso Museum of Art, El Paso, Texas; Tyler Museum of Art, Tyler, Texas; Upriver Gallery Collection, Chengdu, China; NOG Insurance Company, Amsterdam, The Netherlands; and Free International University World Art Collection, Zeist, The Netherlands among many others.

Two major hardcover books have been published on Virgil Grotfeldt: A comprehensive examination of Grotfeldt’s career and works since the 1970s, Virgil Grotfeldt: Including the Series with Waldo Bien, written by Patrick Healy, published by Wienand Verlag Frankfurt, 2003. Grotfeldt is also featured in Waldo Bien: Including the Series with Virgil Grotfeldt written by Patrick Healy, published by Wienand Verlag Frankfurt, 2000.

The upcoming exhibition at Deborah Colton Gallery, All That Is, displays his dimensionally modeled forms of biomorphic abstraction. Nature and abstract form define the art as well as sustain its value as a personal meditation upon essential life forces. The exhibit includes a rare opportunity to view his last body of work, oil painting on his own brain scans titled “274296” (his M.D. Anderson patient number) that opened January 15, 2009 at the Houston Baptist University Art Museum — three weeks before he died.

What has been achieved in Grotfeldt’s art of the abstract sublime is a condition by which his paintings have created a life of their own. They represent, in the truest sense, the power of the human spirit.

Deborah Colton Gallery is founded on being an innovative showcase for ongoing presentation and promotion of strong historical and visionary contemporary artists world-wide, whose diverse practices include painting, works on paper, sculpture, video, photography, performance, conceptual future media and public space installations. The Gallery aspires to provide a forum through connecting Texas, national and international artists to make positive change.