"...his aim is to remind us of beauty, hope, and love.
He sees 20th century art as having pursued novelty at
the expense of beauty, and scorning the latter as trivial
and decorative. Real life and the media have made
us all too aware of the grimmer aspects of life...
He wants art to redress the balance."
The Japan Times, Judith Shimai
Richard Grassi is a native of New York and North Carolina who has been living in Hokuriku, in north-central Japan, since 1991.
The recipient of painting awards in both the United States and in Japan, Grassi is the only non-Japanese artist to have had his work included at the annual "Distinguished Traditional Arts of Kaga Exhibition" (Tokyo International Forum Hall, 1996), and over the past two decades his paintings, prints and drawings have been exhibited in Asia, Europe and North America. His artwork and writing have also appeared in magazines, newspapers and in a book he wrote entitled, A Scribbled Response (Art Kikaku Press, 1992). Grassi's recently exhibited series of drawings of western England received critical acclaim at Japan's Twenty-first Century Museum of Contemporary Art.
Education & CV
Grassi studied studio art with his father and Bob Rankin in the mid-seventies and with Anne Woodeson at St. Andrews College in the late seventies and early eighties. After graduating from St. Andrews in 1982, Grassi continued his studies (as a post-graduate student) with Jim Starrett at the School of Design at North Carolina State Univeristy, Marvin Saltzman at the University of North Carolina, Michael Elbeck at East Carolina University, and Alex Shishin at the Universidad de San Jose (Costa Rica) -- from which he received a doctoral degree in humanities in 1998. Grassi is currently teaching at Kanazawa University in Kanazawa, Japan. His private studio is in the nearby town of Komatsu.
Selected Exhibitions
Grassi has participated in about fifty individual and group exhibitions since 1985.
Here are the shows he considers to be the most significant:
2008 Twenty-first Century Museum of Contemporary Art, "Contemporary
International Landscapes", Kanazawa, Japan (four-person show).
2006 Sertoma Arts Center, "Selected Images from Japan and America", Raleigh, North Carolina, USA (three-person show).
2004 Hirota Gallery, "Eastern and Western Profiles by Noritsugu Ohara and Richard Grassi", Kanazawa, Japan (two-person show). 2002 St. Andrews College, "Richard Grassi: Collected Works From Japan", Laurinburg, North Carolina, USA (individual show).
2001 Elgan Gallery, Hu wei-Da, Zhu jie-Jun, Richard Grassi, Charles Pilkey", Shanghai, China (four-person show).
2000 Korea Institute of Industrial Design Exhibition Gallery, "International Print
Exhibition", Seoul, South Korea (group show).
1999 Fukuoka City Art Museum, "Japan/Korea Contemporary Print Exhibition", Fukuoka, Japan (group show).
1997 Nakamura Art Museum, "Distinguished Arts of Kaga -- Traditional and Non-traditional", Kanazawa, Japan (group show). 1996 Tokyo International Forum Hall, "Distinguished Arts of Kaga Exhibition", Tokyo, Japan (group show). 1994 Banco Central Gallery, "Kagami: A Mirror of Japanese Art -- Japon Y Arte",
Madrid and Barcelona, Spain (eight-person show). 1993 Gallery Mita, "A Scribbled Response", Tokyo, Japan (individual show).
1990 Gallery Andes, "Between East and West", Fukuoka, Japan (individual show).
1989 Fukuoka Prefectural Art Museum, "New Works", Fukuoka, Japan (individual show).
1986 Goldsboro City Gallery, "Seventh Annual National Juried Arts Exhibition", Goldsboro, North Carolina USA (group show).
Selected Awards
2002 Honorarium, St. Andrews College, Laurinburg, North Carolina, USA. 1989 Third Prize, "Bunpodo National Painting Competition", Fukuoka, Japan. 1986 First Prize, "Washington Arts Show", Beaufort County Arts Council, Washington, North Carolina, USA. _________________________________________________________________
More of Grassi's work can be seen at:
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