LINDA GRITTA
Location:
Asheville, NC, USA
ARTIST BIO
Originally from Chicago, Linda Gritta now resides in the mountains of North Carolina where she finds ample inspiration for what she calls her “voracious appetite for color”. After completing a BFA degree she pursued several years of study at the New York Studio School, eventually receiving a Mercedes Matter Alumni Award.
Her acrylic and oil paintings are lush abstractions that sometimes contain a hint of some dream-like figure or object, but all are imbued with an underlying sense of joy, wonder and complexity.
Linda’s work has been featured in Our State magazine, House Beautiful and Studio Visit magazine. She is represented by the Bender Gallery in Asheville, North Carolina where she will have a solo show in June. Her work can be found in numerous private and corporate collections worldwide.
ARTIST STATEMENT
My painting journey has been one based on fundamentals learned academically, but I readily bend the 'rules' in favor of exploration at a deeper intuitive level, letting each painting lead the way. I am first and foremost an eager student of the paint. My work has been described as "lush, evocative, intriguing and hopeful".
I have been told lately that contemporary art needs to have "content" to be relevant. My content is beauty, not as some romantic notion, but as an expression of hopefulness in challenging times. Each painting is a small act of defiance in the face of all the destruction around us. Using the rich language of color, I choose to be an activist who, instead of emphasizing the cruelty and darkness in the world, celebrates the compassion, sacrifice, courage and kindness that is everywhere if you look for it.
I view every collector who expresses their joy in viewing a painting of mine as
a fellow activist, celebrating with me a small but marvelous victory for beauty and hope.
