Gronk will create mural art at MAG

Mexican-American artist begins residency October 6

This fall, things should get lively on University Avenue as the Memorial Art Gallery welcomes Glugio Gronk Nicandro, aka Gronk.

The Chicano artist, performer and arts activist will be in residence October 6-10 at MAG, where he'll spend several days painting a wall of the Lockhart Gallery.

As with last spring's sand mandala, visitors are invited to watch the process of creation. Indeed, Gronk encourages comments from visitors, often incorporating their ideas into his work. And like the mandala, the work is a temporary one, destined to be enjoyed, then destroyed.

The Act of Painting: Gronk! also includes works from MAG's collection by de Kooning, Pollock and four other abstract expressionists, on view through November 15. They'll help provide a frame of reference before, during and after Gronk's visit. And museum-goers will have a chance to watch a PBS video of the artist in action. The half-hour video, made during Gronk's recent residency at the University of Wisconsin, runs continuously in the exhibition space until work on the mural begins.

"To fly" is the literal translation of Gronk. Chosen by his mother, who saw the Brazilian Indian word in a magazine, it's an apt name for an artist who has soared to the top of his profession.

Born in 1954 to Mexican parents, Gronk dropped out of school at 16 to become an artist. In 1972 he began his association with ASCO, a now-defunct, avant-garde Chicano performance group. The group staged street celebrations, gallery performances and antiwar protests.

In one particularly notorious action, members spray painted their names on the L. A. County Museum of Art to protest the institution's exclusion of Latino artists. Twenty years later, Gronk reappeared at LACMA--this time on the inside--as the subject of a retrospective.

Intense, provocative and often outrageous, Gronk refuses to take himself too seriously. Nor has he forgotten his roots. He serves as an inspiration for aspiring young artists, and in Rochester he'll spend time in the classroom at several city schools.

The Act of Painting: Gronk!

Meet the artist

Tuesday, October 6, 7:30 pm
Gronk!: Live and On Stage
The artist speaks on his career and the work he is creating at MAG.
His lecture/performance is free.

Family Day

Saturday, October 10, 1-5 pm
Fiesta Gronk!
Don't miss our family celebration of Latino art, music and dance.
Meet Gronk and view his completed mural in the Lockhart Gallery. Admission is $1 (free to members and children 5 and under).

Featured events:

• Make It and Take It with graffiti artists Melo and Range, 1-4 p.m.
• Gallery talks by Gronk, 1:30 and 4 p.m.
• Family tour, 2 p.m.
• Stories and songs with Hola Lola, 2:30 p.m.
• Performance by Borinquen Dance Company, 3 p.m.
• Merengue line dancing, 4 p.m.