About the artwork:
Some notes J made after a night of failure:
‘These works are the opposite of my drawings. My drawings are made instantly, in one motion. These concrete works are difficult to make. I have about ten minutes to work, precisely. If I work too early, the paint floats away. If I wait too long, it dries before I can finish. After I draw it out, I have to stop and live with it. I immediately feel regret and dissatisfaction. I feel like I'm drawing into water and trying to keep it together long enough for the river to freeze. These works feel more like a performance -- trying to keep my attention open and stay relaxed enough to let the drawing happen, yet at any moment, I can lose focus, and it can change. I find these images captivating because of the oil and water impossibility they embody. They resemble molten ash in rock; long periods of time and also an instant of freezing or drying. It’s all there in front while somehow retaining its mystery and simplicity.’
About the artist:
J Grabowski (b. in New York City) is an artist whose practice explores drawing, writing, painting, sculpture, movement, and music. His work has been exhibited at Off Paradise ("Like a Nightingale with a Toothache" (2024), "Some Kind of Mind Thing" (2022), "The Secret Show" (2021)), White Columns, The Drawing Center, Independent Art Fair, The Salon by NADA & The Community, The Church of St. Paul the Apostle, The NYPL Jefferson Market Library, Qualia, Underdonk, Adobe Books, Gathering of the Tribes, Museo de la Ciudad de México and Fuse Gallery; published by Two Way Mirror (forthcoming), Lithic Press, Old Gold, Ugly Duckling Presse, Bird & Beckett and the Berkeley Art Museum; held in the collections of The Bunker Artspace, West Palm Beach and the Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library. J cofounded PUSH Press, the Heliopolis Project (2010-2015), POMPEI and Turtle Records.
Specs:
Concrete Drawing” is an ongoing series of cement works by J Grabowski that live somewhere between drawing, painting, performance, and sculpture. The title describes the process in which the works are made, drawing directly into the material, while gleaning from 'Concrete Poetry' and ‘Musique Concrète,’ an experimental type of music composition pioneered by Luc Ferrari, that utilizes recorded sounds as raw material. Similarly, these cement works become a record of their own formation, collectively building a visual language over time akin to cuneiform, pictograms, and contemporary signage.More
- Unframed
3:00 PM, Jun 25, 2026.
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