Evan Gruzis

Mr. Gruzis’s approach to lighting and to cultural icons is both romantic and dark-humored. His black and white ink drawings are visionary posters, displaying a “new-wave noir” aesthetic that carries the viewer into a stylized and vapid world. A seductive Southern California air is pervasive.

One painting becomes a three-dimensional installation with added backlighting and sculptural mounting. Though prop-like, it is authentic, indicating the dual relationship between sincerity and theatricality.

Another painting pays satirical homage to the women in Patrick Nagel’s paintings of the 1970’s.

Evan Gruzis is from Milwaukee. He has lived in Los Angeles and now resides in New York, where he is an MFA candidate in Combined Media at Hunter College.

Evan Gruzis