{"id":101,"date":"2016-12-06T16:50:37","date_gmt":"2016-12-06T15:50:37","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/gregorymontreuil.com\/?page_id=101"},"modified":"2025-07-22T14:16:53","modified_gmt":"2025-07-22T12:16:53","slug":"about","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/gregorymontreuil.com\/?page_id=101","title":{"rendered":"ABOUT"},"content":{"rendered":"

Gregory Montreuil <\/strong>is an American artist working in Marseille France. His work has been shown in numerous solo and group exhibitions in the US and Europe.<\/p>\n

Montreuil\u2019s work is in the collections of:<\/p>\n

Yale University, New Haven, CT.<\/p>\n

The Wadsworth Athenaeum, Hartford CT.<\/p>\n

The National Gallery, Washington, DC<\/p>\n

The Weatherspoon Museum, Greensboro, NC<\/p>\n

The Rourke Museum, Moorhead, MN<\/p>\n

Prudential Insurance, Newark, NJ<\/p>\n

The Wurlitzer Foundation, Taos, NM<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Artist Statement\u00a0 Gregory Montreuil 2017<\/strong><\/p>\n

I\u2019m very interested in structure which is why I eliminate all extraneous compositional elements I could afford to jettison. I worked solely in black white and grey for many years but recently color has entered as an important structural element. \u00a0Working on either canvas or paper, the process resembles a wrestling match with the disparate elements thrown and forced into some kind of resolution. This may sound like a fairly ascetic process, but ultimately it\u2019s quite freeing. No two works are ever alike in tone or emotion and the compositional possibilities are endless. What\u2019s more, I can be in the moment, respecting the mark as it happens. It\u2019s like having the decision-making process of a painting laid completely bare.<\/p>\n

The lexicon of possible marks, too, seems endless. There are precise \u201cstrikes\u201d of paint; crawling lines that change their thickness subtly, as they meander towards empty space; loaded brushmarks that start at the top of the surface full of pigment, then swoop down to nest or blend into each other-all of which I affect, thanks to a range of brushes I\u2019ve grown attached to over the years. Generally I work quickly to establish the structure of the painting in the first secession; sometime later I go back to the work and amend, edit and sharpen the marks as needed. Affecting a sense of proportion and balance is very important to me.<\/p>\n

That said, lately I\u2019ve been using a wet-on wet working method. It is more daring and risky, (it creates a time constraint and is more difficult to alter). I do the latter works on stretched canvases, each titled and dated separately. I listen to snippets of conversation overheard in my travels which become open ended titles for my work. I\u2019m always having a kind of dialogue, a conversation if you will, with chance and unpredictability in my works. Once the individual works are hung together, they\u2019re able to have a larger, more concrete and tangible \u201cconversation\u201d with each other.<\/p>\n

At this point, I should also note that I\u2019m a published writer, (mostly of art criticism, for local weeklies and international monthlies), and that language plays a big part in how I see my world. It\u2019s my desire to use my written criticism not to harshly deconstruct, so much as to open up a work of art to help people see and understand. Likewise, I also want to explore how verbal sounds resonate with my own work, particularly in their titles: \u201cJust Wait,\u201d \u201cWho\u2019s There,\u201d \u201cFour Times a Day,\u201d \u201cMake Me\u201d – all are actual snippets of conversations I\u2019ve overheard around me in the city or on the subway; some of them from one-sided cell phone conversations,. I write down these moments of open \u2013 ended conversation, because, like my painted work they seem so open to personal interpretation. These words sound really specific, and yet you can make of them what you wish. I like the notion that people are making up their own narratives to go with my abstract work.<\/p>\n

Last year I visited Cezanne\u2019s studio in Aix-en-Provence, and what I saw there has stayed with me ever since. It\u2019s a beautiful space. Preserved intact, as if the master had just left and would be back any moment: his hat and coat on a hook, canvases ready in his backpack, the exact grey of the walls in the tone he’d chosen carefully for himself (Cezanne, saw the value of eliminating color when necessary, to see more clearly what he was trying to accomplish). Overall, the experience made me think: perhaps the real legacy an artist can leave behind is the here and now; a trace of the exact, and utterly subjective moment in which he lived.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

EDUCATION<\/strong>:<\/p>\n

Bachelor of Science Degree, Cum Laude, University of Minnesota, Moorhead, MN
\nArt Education<\/p>\n

SOLO & TWO PERSON EXHIBITIONS<\/strong>:<\/p>\n

2016\u00a0 \u201cDynamic Force\/True Colors\u201d Galerie Du Tableau, Marseille, France<\/p>\n

2014 \u201cControl Alt Delete\u201d Galerie Du Tableau, Marseille France<\/p>\n

2013 \u201cWrestling with Space\u201d The Rourke Museum, Moorhead, MN<\/p>\n

2010 Rio Bravo Fine Art, Truth or Consequences, NM<\/p>\n

2008 Galerie Du Tableau, Marseille, France<\/p>\n

2005 Ou Galerie Marseille France<\/p>\n

2002 Galerie Du Tableau, Marseille, France<\/p>\n

2001 Galerie Du Tableau, Marseille, France<\/p>\n

1998 Jeffery Coploff Fine Art, New York, NY<\/p>\n

1996 Annika Sundvik Gallery New York, NY<\/p>\n

1989 Julian Pretto Gallery New York, NY<\/p>\n

1988 Julian Pretto Gallery New York, NY<\/p>\n

SELECTED EXHIBITIONS<\/strong><\/p>\n

2015 The 56th<\/sup> Invitational, Rourke Museum, Moorhead, MN<\/p>\n

2014 \u201cLe Show Des Amis\u201d Showroom Gowanus, Brooklyn, NY<\/p>\n

The 55th<\/sup> Invitational, Rourke Museum, Moorhead, MN<\/p>\n

2013 \u201cJulian Pretto Gallery\u201d Minus Space, Brooklyn, NY<\/p>\n

The54th Invitational, Rourke Museum, Moorhead, MN<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Moby Project\u201d, Neoteric Gallery, Amagansett, NY<\/p>\n

\u201cPaper Mirror Torn\u201d, Brian Morris Gallery, New York, NY<\/p>\n

2012 \u201cThe 53rd<\/sup> Invitational\u201d Rourke Museum, Moorhead MN<\/p>\n

\u201cGroup Show\u201d Tricycle, Marseille, France<\/p>\n

2011\u00a0 \u201cCarte Blanche\u201d, Analix Forever Galerie, Geneva, Switzerland<\/p>\n

\u201cArt in a Box\u201d Cheryl Pelavin Gallery, New York, NY<\/p>\n

\u201cBenefit \u201c, Samaratains, New York, NY<\/p>\n

\u201cSummer Invitational\u201d, Rourke Art Museum, Moorhead, MN<\/p>\n

\u201cCollaboration with Yves Musard: La Casita, Las Crurces, New Mexico<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Real LR Word\u201d Ligne Roset New York, NY<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s All Good (Apocalypse Now)\u201d, Sideshow Gallery, Brooklyn, NY<\/p>\n

2010\u00a0 \u201cAbstract 100\u201d, University of Minnesota at Moorhead, Moorhead MN<\/p>\n

It\u2019s a Wonderful Tenth, Side Show Gallery, Brooklyn, New York<\/p>\n

Feature Gallery \u201cPower to the People\u201d<\/p>\n

2009 Art and Democracy IV, Visual Artists Guild Gallery H, New York, NY<\/p>\n

Tricycle Open Studio, Marseille France<\/p>\n

Tandem Global Partners, NY Group Show<\/p>\n

Sierra Vista Hospital, Truth of Consequences NM, Viewing Program<\/p>\n

2007 Entr\u2019Arts Grenoble France, Group Show<\/p>\n

2002 The Work Space, New York, NY \u201cBlobs Wiggles and Dots, Webs and<\/p>\n

Crustillations curated by Lucio Pozzi<\/p>\n

2001 Weatherspoon Gallery, University of North Carolina at Greensboro, North Carolina<\/p>\n

New Acquisitions<\/p>\n

Catherine Moore Fine Art New YORK, NY Group Show<\/p>\n

2000 Le Salon for Art Collectors,<\/p>\n

1999 Margaret Thatcher Projects New York, NY<\/p>\n

Kunstlerhaus Hamburg, Germany, Fur Trans<\/p>\n

1998 Galerie Barrouyer Paris France Group Show<\/p>\n

1996 Wadsworth Athenaeum, Harford CT: Acquiring Art in the 90\u2019s: The Julian Pretto<\/p>\n

Collection<\/p>\n

1993 The Century Club New York, NY Artists for the Richard Brown Baker Collection<\/p>\n

1992 Pamela Auchincloss Gallery New York, NY Contemporary Surfaces Curated by<\/p>\n

Rick Ward<\/p>\n

1991 Hallwalls Contemporary Art Center Buffalo, NY A Question of Paint Curated by<\/p>\n

Charles Wright Jr.<\/p>\n

Publications:<\/p>\n

2013 \u201cJulian Pretto Gallery at Minus Space\u201d New York Observer, Oct 1, 2013 by<\/p>\n

by Andrew Russeth<\/p>\n

Arts and Humanities Newsletter, University of Minnesota, Moorhead. (Cover and<\/p>\n

Feature)<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Main Event\u201d Fargo Forum, April 28, 2013<\/p>\n

\u201cCrookston Native, Montreuil\u2019s Art on Display\u201d Crookston Times, June 4, 2013<\/p>\n

2012 \u201cGet There First, Decide Promptly, The Richard Brown Baker Collection of Postwar Art\u201d Yale University Press (book)<\/p>\n

2010 The Herald,\u00a0 Truth or Consequences, NM\u00a0 Nov, 24th<\/sup> 2010 \u201cBlack and White & Felt All Over\u201d by Kathleen Sloan<\/p>\n

2011\u00a0 INK, Las Cruces, NM\u00a0 \u201cBlack and White\u201d by Kathleen Sloan<\/p>\n

2006 \u201c560 Broadway: A New York Drawing Collection at Work, 1991-2006 By Amy Eshoo (book)<\/p>\n

2001 \u201cA Question of Paint\u201d Essay by Charles Wright Jr. Hallwalls, Buffalo, NY<\/p>\n

1998 Art Papers\u00a0 July\/August\u00a0 Amanda Church and Gregory Montreuil by Elisabeth Condon<\/p>\n

1998 The Boston Globe Oct 15, \u201cArt Grounded in Earth; bursting out and in\u201d by Cate McQuaid<\/p>\n

M\/E\/A\/N\/I\/N\/G\u00a0 #20, New York, NY<\/p>\n

1995\u00a0 M\/E\/A\/N\/I\/N\/G\u00a0 #16, New York, NY<\/p>\n

RESIDENCIES<\/strong><\/p>\n

2001 The Wurlitzer Foundation Taos, NM<\/p>\n

COLLECTIONS<\/strong><\/p>\n

The Wurlitzer Foundation, Taos, NM<\/p>\n

Yale University, New Haven CT<\/p>\n

Wadsworth Athenaeum, Hartford CT<\/p>\n

The National Gallery Washington, DC<\/p>\n

Weatherspoon Art Gallery , Greensboro, North Carolina<\/p>\n

The Rourke Museum and Gallery, Moorhead, MN<\/p>\n

Prudential Insurance , Newark, NJ<\/p>\n

ART INSTRUCTOR<\/strong><\/p>\n

Goddard Riverside Community Center, New York, NY<\/p>\n

1997-2015<\/p>\n

Council House, New York, NY 2012-2015<\/p>\n

S.T.A.R. Center, New York, NY 2013-2015<\/p>\n

Guest Lecturer \u201cMateriality and Social Sculpture, Parson School of Design, New York,<\/p>\n

NY<\/p>\n

Born Crookston Minnesota<\/p>\n

WRITER: Flash Art International Art Magazine Milan Italy, Contemporary Magazine, London, England, The New Art Examiner, Chicago Ill.\u00a0 The Villager, New York, NY and catalogue essays<\/p>\n

.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Gregory Montreuil is an American artist working in Marseille France. His work has been shown in numerous solo and group exhibitions in the US and Europe. Montreuil\u2019s work is in the collections of: Yale University, New Haven, CT. The Wadsworth Athenaeum, Hartford CT. The National Gallery, Washington, DC The Weatherspoon Museum, Greensboro, NC The Rourke…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-101","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/gregorymontreuil.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/101","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/gregorymontreuil.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/gregorymontreuil.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gregorymontreuil.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gregorymontreuil.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=101"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/gregorymontreuil.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/101\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":441,"href":"https:\/\/gregorymontreuil.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/101\/revisions\/441"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/gregorymontreuil.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=101"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}