Jerry Gray
Jerry Gray, Toledo, OH
Jerry Gray is a well-known artist, gallery owner, and curator in Toledo, OH. In 2009, he opened the now locally-renowned Bozarts Gallery in an old cement-mixing facility on the edge of Downtown. As a venue that exclusively showcased local and regional artists and musicians, the space was instrumental in laying the foundation of the contemporary local arts scene.
Jerry recently returned after spending seven years in Asheville, NC. Upon his arrival, he opened Just Jerry’s, a more casual curation located inside The Switchboard, a bar, gallery, and music venue in downtown Toledo. The space is largely focused on working artists and those Jerry admires. Though, in early 2022, Jerry chose to celebrate the one-year anniversary of his homecoming with a new show focused on all new work.
The grandson of art supply store owners, Jerry has long fostered a DIY creative side and an unrivaled work ethic. He has an admirable comfortability in experimentation, constantly exploring new ways to make his work, new materials, new media, and new colors. Although his collective body of work has varied over the years, there is remarkable consistency. His works are perhaps less statements than they are ongoing conversations and there is a general sense that Jerry is happy to invite you into his explorations.
This is evident in his latest exhibition, a fun, bold, inquisitive show where Jerry is working toward some new ideas. Specifically, his works like cut Ohio pieces that can be unique but replicated, and his massive painting that is moveable and interactive, making sense in an array of configurations.
You’ve always had a liberal approach to items that could be useful for art. I’m curious how you see that as a body over the time you’ve been making work, do you view each as an individual project or is it part of a larger idea you’ve been working towards?
Using a wide variety of materials for creating art is a sort of confluence of many situations throughout my time creating. Since I was just a child growing up in an art supply store, with the allowance of trying different media, materials, and substrates, to scavenging construction sites for useful materials, to finding random objects in the streets or in the woods — wherever I've found myself, inspiration sometimes just strikes and I can't help but collect and or integrate whatever the material or object may be into something I find aesthetically pleasing or poignant.
I've never really thought of these pieces as a collection as a whole, though some may, I tend to consider them very individualistic. Albeit perhaps they have more in common than I've intended. Akin to siblings that may have never met but share the same DNA or a peculiar similarity or feature.
You spent seven years living in the mountains outside of Asheville and, as I understand it, not making a lot of work during that time. I’m curious what inspirations were collected or built up that are coming out in your work now?
I have two true loves, one is my art and my desire to facilitate the exhibition of art for those who I respect, and the other is wilderness, as true wilderness as possible.
It is true that I did not create a large body of work during my time in North Carolina. I was however exploring and diving into my long-neglected love of nature by spending an average of one (accumulated) week or more a month camping, hiking or just being solitary in the national forests there. This changed and soothed me in many ways. Without the bustle of the hustle, I calmed.
I should say during that time I did create a couple of the largest works I've ever made. One was a 12ft by 4.5ft silhouetted wall hanging of N.C. and the other was a five-piece 6ft by 15ft tree line painting both hanging at Stackhouse Restaurant in Mars Hill, N.C. Those along with a few hundred photos, a few paintings, and numerous drawings were the extent of what had previously been the focus of my existence for the previous 20 years.
I have currently been revisiting a lot of those photographs for reference and print work. I have also been utilizing a few of the discoveries I found during some of the drawings I produced there. It's been just over a year since I"ve been back in Toledo. I don't believe I've scratched the surface of the inspiration that living in that environment is going to present to me yet.
Your modular piece is fascinating to me in how it’s interactive and so bold. For a purchaser, that’s such a fine inspiration to keep from getting bored with a piece. How did you arrive at that idea and how will it influence your work in the future?
This idea for the modular painting came during my relatively dormant time in North Carolina. I would sketch and draw very flat, very graphic compositional depictions of nature using straight edge lines and color fields. After I had done a few of these I began using many of the same measurements within different compositions and then started lining them up to each other with one another. As they progressed I began working on diptychs and triptychs and enjoyed the parameters of math, composition, and nature. Similar to the blueprint style renderings I've done of nature of Utah, Colorado, and California, merging a blueprint rendering vibe with a nature scene. The juxtaposition of math and graphic illustrative painting designs with nature is a conversation I've always appreciated. I certainly intend to dive deeper into these works while continuing that dialogue of questioning whether a piece of artwork is necessarily indeed singular.
