John Grazier

Biography

1946   Born: Long Beach, New York, NY

John Grazier was born in Long Beach, New York, June 23, 1946. His father, then owner of the Bellevue Inn, a small resort Hotel in Delaware Water Gap, Pennsylvania and died when Grazier was three. The Bellevue Inn, demolished soon thereafter, is a ghost in the artist's dreams, which he has painted many times. The artist now lives and works in the mountains of rural Pennsylvania.

"I paint paradoxical precisionist images culled from my lucid dreams.  My paintings are challenging, with odd juxtapositions of their elements, saturated colors.  I seek... merely success; I have done this, but seek it on a much higher level."

Selected Exhibitions 

1996   "New Aquatint Etchings", Historic Former Greyhound Terminal, Washington, DC (solo)
Citibank, Washington, DC (solo)
1995   Zenith Gallery, Washington, DC
Clark and Company Gallery, Washington, DC
“The Herbert Plimpton Collection of Realist Art,” Rose Art Museum, Brandeis University, Waltham, MA
1992   "Assorted Trompe l’oiel Paintings", Adams-Davidson Gallery, Washington, DC
1991   Zenith Gallery, Washington, DC (solo)
1990   Zenith Gallery, Washington, DC (solo)
“Intimate and Visionary: 200 Years of American Master Drawings 1790-1970”, Adams-Davidson Gallery, Washington, DC
1985   Robert Brown Gallery, Washington, DC
“The Tampa Triennial”, The Tampa Museum, Tampa, FL
1983   “Realism 1983”, Southeasten Center for Contemporary Art, Winston-Salem, NC
1980   “Contemporary Drawings and Watercolors”, Memorial Art Gallery, University of Rochester, Rochester, NY
“25 Washington Artists:Realism and Representation,” Foundry Gallery, Washington, DC
“22nd Area Exhibtion: Works on Paper”, Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington, DC
“American Drawings in Black and White-1970-1980”, Brooklyn Museum of Art, New York, NY
Lunn Gallery, Washington, DC (solo)
1979   “Drawn in Pencil”, Fitchburg Museum, Fitchburg, MA
“Southeastern Graphics Invitational:Drawings”, Mint Museum, Charlotte, NC
“15 Washington Artists:Works on Paper, Works in Clay”, The Arts Gallery, Baltimore, MD
1978   “Garbage and Wrecks”, Fendrick Gallery, Washington, DC
“Washington Realists”, Middendorf-Lane Gallery, Washington, DC
1977   "Contemporary American Drawings", Jane Haslem Gallery, Washington, DC
Stowe Gallery, Davidson College, Davidson, NC (solo)
1976   "American Drawings from Friends of the Corcoran”, Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington, DC
“Collectibles", Sunne Savage Gallery, Boston, MA
Stowe Gallery, Davidson College, Davidson, NC
"Posters, Prins, Presents", Kingpitcher Gallery, Pittsburg, PA
1975   “Davidson National Print and Drawing Competition”, Davidson College, Davidson, NC
“Drawings from the Studios of Washington Artists”, Washington Project for the Arts, Washington, DC
“Washington Area Art”, United States Information Agency, International Tour: Near East, Middle East
Fendrick Gallery, Washington, DC (solo)
1974   “The Soft Pencil Line”, Fendrick Gallery, Washington, DC
“19th Area Exhibition”, Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington, DC
Baltimore Museum of Art Baltimore, MD (solo)
1973   “Davidson National Print and Drawing Competition, “Davidson College, Davidson, NC

Selected Public Collections

National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC
National Museum of American Art, Washington, DC
Library of Congress, Washington, DC
Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago, Illinois
Brandeis University, Waltham, Massachusetts
Davidson College, Davidson, NC
Dartmouth College, Hanover, NH
University of Rochester, Rochester, NY
Wellesley College, Wellesley, Massachusetts

Literature

2009   Grazier, John. American Painter John Grazier. MagCloud, June 2009

Education

1968   Studied at the Corcoran School of Art, Washington, DC 
1971 - 1972   Studied at the Maryland Institute of Art, Baltimore, MD 
1972   Refused the Abel Scholarship and left school 
1974   Grant, National Endowment for the Arts 
1975   Davidson National Print & Drawing Competition, Davidson College, Davidson, N.C.: Purchase Award, Impressions Workshop Award, Impressions Workshop 
1986 - 1987   Grant, Pollock-Krasner Foundation 
1993   Fellow, McDowell Colony, Peterborough, NH
1996   Grant, Washington, D.C., Council on the Arts

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