Grace DeGennaro (born 1956) is an American artist. She is best known for watercolors and paintings that explore “ritual, geometry, and growth through repeated forms, serial patterns, and iconic forms like circles and diamonds.”[1]
Duration (Magenta), 2018, oil on linen, 78" x 48"Sunwheels, 2017, oil on linen, 78" x 48"
DeGennaro’s artistic practice has been described as nature and mathematics converging where “subtle washes of watercolor yield symmetrical compositions of circles and triangles, which are then heightened with small beads of colored pigment. These patterns accumulate according to the Fibonacci sequence or the principle of gnomonic growth to create a visible record of time.”[4]
Among her early influences was the 1984 exhibition at the Museum of Modern Art, Primitivism in 20th Century Art, which focused on the impact of ritual and religion in non-Western art.[3]
Along with art from non-Western cultures the artist’s life-long study of symbols and her own dreams have been a source of inspiration.[5] DeGennaro has recorded dreams in a journal for 37 years.
DeGennaro has been the recipient of a grant from the Ballinglen Arts Foundation in 2012.[6]
Selected exhibitions
DeGennaro’s work has been included in Sixfold Symmetry: Pattern in Art and Science at The Frances Young Tang Teaching Museum and Art Gallery in Saratoga Springs,[6]Patterns: Selections from the Kentler Flatfiles at Kentler International Drawing Space in Brooklyn, NY,[6] and To Infinity and Beyond: Mathematics in Contemporary Art at the Heckscher Museum of Art in Huntington, NY.[6][7] Her work has also been exhibited in the American Embassies in Tanzania and Qatar.[6][8]
2018 Heaven and Earth, Drive-By Projects, Watertown, MA[5]
2018 New Geometry II, Fred Giampietro Gallery, New Haven, CT
2016 Continuum, Schema Projects, Brooklyn, NY
2017 Patterns: Selections from the Kentler Flatfiles, Kentler International Drawing Space, Brooklyn, NY; curated by Samantha Friedman
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