Influenced by abstract and pop culture art, Mark Grotjahn creates paintings, many of them large scale and elongated, that combine hard-edge design and expressionism. On canvas, he builds opaque layers with thick impasto paint that radiates from a central point. With underpainting and much texture, many of these paintings convey radiant light and three dimensionality, a deception of space.
Grotjahn was born in Pasadena, California, and lives primarily in Los Angeles. His art education included enrollment at the Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture in Skowhegan, Maine; University of Colorado, Boulder where he received a B.F.A.; and University of California, Berkeley, where he earned an M.F.A.
Exhibition venues include Los Angeles, New York, Santa Monica and London.
Sources include:
Holte, Michael Ned. “Reviews: Mark Grotjahn”. Artforum, November 2005, pg. 259-260
Goodbody, Bridget. “Mark Grotjahn: Drawings at Hammer Projects, U.C.L.A.’s Hammer Museum, Los Angeles.” Art on Paper, May/June 2005, pgs. 78-80
Trainor, James. “Rates of Exchange ” Frieze, October 2003, p.116-117.
Saatchi Gallery website
Blum and Poe website
Gagosian website
Biography from the Archives of AskART.