Eager to push into new territory, to explore the line between land and sky, heaven and earth, Gregory has amplified the scale of his works, doubling them in size, moving from panel to canvas in his current exhibition. While the show is entitled “Town and Country,” and the manifest content of each work is that line between heaven and earth, it is the underlying content, the metaphor that is most important in this new body of work, the balance between beauty, hope and despair; the loneliness of a starlit sky; the poetic and often pregnant sensation that is present where the horizon meets the sky in a way that does not address literal separation from earth. Gregory was inspired by the poetry in the songs of Bob Dylan, two in particular: “The Ballad of Hollis Brown” and “Boots of Spanish Leather.” “Hollis Brown” speaks of a failed homestead with the death of a farmer and his family, and yet ends on the transcendent note of rebirth; “Spanish Leather” speaks of the separation of two lovers and what is most important in life. In metaphorical fashion, Gregory uses the large new format of oil on canvas to explore some of life’s large mysteries.

Ghost of Tom Joad
2008, oil on canvas, 50 x 84 inches

“Brightness Falls From the Air” is a large cityscape, spanning ten feet in width and five feet in height. A midnight blue sky radiates the light of the city and is kindled by thousands of sparkling stars, earth reflecting sky and sky reflecting earth. This could be any city, the likelihood is that it is the Bay area where the artist lives, a grid of lights suggest street life and music and sound, and the perpetual buzz of humanity making its way through the grid of any city in any country in the day and in the night.

Drakes 2006, oil on canvas, 72 x 60 inches

Untitled 2007, oil on canvas, 72 x 60 inches

Gregory’s new large-scale works on canvas provide the opportunity for new ways of painting. Within one canvas the artist utilizes myriad different gestures and tools. Up close, the viewer shares in the sheer physicality of the paint on canvas. Gregory gives the viewer a range of experience, from abstraction up close, to a crystallized image from afar. “Town and Country” is Gregory’s richest offering in pigment and in image to date.

Across the Water 2008, oil on canvas, 72 x 60 inches

Wye 2007, oil on canvas, 72 x 60 inches

The artist’s work has been shown at The Arkansas Arts Center, Little Rock; Boulder Center for the Visual Arts, Colorado; The Butler Institute of American Art, Youngstown, Ohio; California College of Arts and Crafts, Oakland; Center for the Arts, Vero Beach, Florida; Evansville Museum of Arts, Science and History, Indiana; Fine Arts Center Galleries, University of Rhode Island, Kingston; The Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco, California; Flint Institute of Arts, Michigan; Florida International University, Miami; Hunter Museum of Art, Chattanooga, Tennessee; Maier Museum of Art, Randolph-Macon Woman’s College, Lynchburg, Virginia; Richmond Art Center, California; San Francisco Arts Commission Gallery, California; San Jose Institute of Contemporary Art, California; San Mateo Arts Council, California; Selby Gallery, Ringling School of Art and Design, Sarasota, Florida.

His work is included in the collections of the Delaware Art Museum, Wilmington; Denver Art Museum, Colorado; Evansville Museum of Arts and Science, Indiana; San Jose Museum of Art, California, and numerous private collections.

Untitled (pink sky) 2007, oil on canvas, 72 x 60 inches

Far from Home 2008, oil on canvas, 84 x 72 inches

He was Martha and Merritt deJong Memorial Artist-in-Residence, Evansville Museum of Arts, Science and History, Indiana in 2003.

Morning Star 2007, oil on canvas, 48 1/2 x 38 1/2 inches

Ambient Light 2007, oil on canvas, 72 x 60 inches