Painter Gregg Stone makes an impact with his collection of eerily beautiful multi-media paintings that reveal his travels thru the avenues and byways of border region Hispanic communities.  While the socio-economic underbelly of these locales clearly captivates him, Stone is also keenly aware of the cultural and architectural treasures that often incongruously share space alongside the hybrid flotsam of class inequity, urban anarchy and increasing globalization.  Stone transposes this uniquely south-of-the-border visual, along with his sensitive portrayal of people inhabiting it, into the vivid tapestry of images that forms the sum total of his art.

In my recent interview with Gregg I asked:

Gregg, you wrote the following: “In the outskirts of town, I was able to submerge and be forgotten.  Life no longer noticed me as I slipped into a world of oblivion through drug addiction and alcoholism. I withdrew from the city mainstream and into the margins of the outskirts. There was no pretension. You are surrounded by the vices in life: gambling, drugs, prostitution and poverty. You live in a simple world where all of your efforts are focused on procuring the chemicals that will change your meaningless life, into numbness and warm euphoria.”  Tell me, why did you write this?

 

You might say I wanted the viewer to look at the paintings with this prequalification and insight by letting you know that the work is part of my personal experience, I wanted to explain the reason for choosing this subject matter in my work, that I had lived it, not just viewed it from afar.

 

(Full Interview to come out in December on www.downtownlalife.com)

Please look out for Gregg Stone in the near future.  He is blowing up and he deserves every minute of it.   His work is currently a featured artist at Crewest Gallery in Los Angeles and his work is on display at Crewest till the end of November.  Click here.

You can find out more about Gregg Stone online at:  www.greggstonegallery.com.