Tonya Gregg
Big Swim, 2014.
About:
Tonya Gregg was born and raised in South Carolina. She attended the Governor’s School for the Arts Gifted and Talented program in Greenville, South Carolina and then moved to Baltimore to study at the Maryland Institute College of Art where she received a BFA in painting in 1997. She received a MFA in painting in 2000 from the University of Chicago and MA in Community Arts in 2007 from the Maryland Institute, College of Art as well. Gregg was the first full-time art student to be featured in New American Paintings and since then has exhibited in the U.S., Germany, Nicaragua, England and Canada. Her solo exhibitions include Gallery 1448 in Baltimore, Maryland, the Lawndale Art Center in Houston, Texas and Ithaca College in Ithaca, New York. She has been an artist in residence at the Millay Colony in Austerlitz, New York, Red Gate in Beijing, China, the Banff Centre in Alberta, Canada and the Wollmagazin in Kaiserslautern, Germany. Gregg often paints in series to explore paradoxical narratives about women, consumption, popular culture and ancient mythology.
Noble Journey, 2015.
TheNegotiation.
My narrative paintings depict personal and social themes of womanhood, consumption, popular culture and ancient mythology. In my episodic paintings the women are on a personal quest to find a balance in life between sensual pleasures and intellectual and spiritual pursuits. Wide-eyed cherub-like fairies with Afro hair float through the scenes seeking to capture the attention of the women and the viewer. They serve as celestial messengers, and at times, whimsical pests with an omniscient view of the women’s situations as well as a pragmatic plan aimed at reinforcing the subject’s authenticity. Broad themes that weave in and out of my work include women’s ideals of beauty and various ideals about public and private life. The forms unify the compositions while forwarding the narratives and ultimately, the elements are integrated with one another to allow oppositional ideas about the characters and the environments they inhabit.