Zbigniew Grzyb
Zbigniew Grzyb (1943-
“A Hartford Biography”
© Gary W. Knoble, 2015
Gryzb immigrated from Poland in 1973 and settled in Farmington, Connecticut. Since that time he has been prominent in the local art scene, working behind and in front of the scene at the New Britain Museum of American Art, exhibiting at numerous local galleries on a regular basis, teaching at various local institutions and generally enriching the lives of his numerous fans with his beautiful, joyous, and uplifting works.
Zbigniew Grzyb was born in January 16, 1943 in Przemysl, Poland. He attended the Jaroslaw High School of Fine Art from 1960 to 1965 and the Academy of Fine Art in Cracow Poland from 1965 until he graduated in 1971. After graduating he was awarded a grant for free study from the Polish Ministry of Art and Culture. He used the grant to travel in Italy, France, and Turkey exhibiting his art.
In 1973 he immigrated to the United States settling in Farmington, Connecticut. His wife Irene took a job at the New Britain Library so he could have the time to pursue his artistic career. He received his first exhibition in the United States five years later at the Zarick Gallery in Farmington. Grzyb went to work at the New Britain Museum of American Art as a security guard. In an interview with Owen McNally in the Hartford Courant published on September 9, 2001 he said he chose to work as a security guard rather than teaching.
``With the museum job, I don't have to make big decisions. `It's physical work, and that's healthy. It keeps my mind off things and keeps my body in shape. I'm lucky. I can see shows, meet artists and watch people and view their reactions to art. I like to do that. It teaches me something about art and people.''
In 1983 he had his first solo exhibition at the New Britain Museum of American Art. His career quickly blossomed. He received the Blanche E. Coleman Grant in 1984-85 and began showing on a regular basis at the area galleries, including solo shows at the Salt Box Gallery in West Hartford (1985), The Art Guild in Farmington (1986), and the UCONN Health Center Gallery in Farmington (1989). In 1991 the Paesaggio Gallery in Hartford chose to inaugurate their new gallery with a solo show of Grzyb’s works. In the years since the Paesaggio Gallery, and its successor Brick Walk Fine Art has held solo shows of his work on almost an annual basis and has included him in even more group shows. Other local galleries that have shown his work include CCSU in New Britain (1995), Art Space in New Haven (1996) and the Mattatuck Museum’s Biennial show in (?).
2001 was a bitter/sweet year for Grzyb. His wife Irene, who had given up her own career as an artist to support his efforts, died in August. But, in the same year he was featured in the prestigious NEW/NOW series at the New Britain Museum of American Art and received grants from the Greater Hartford Arts Council and the Pollack-Krasner Foundation. Reviewing that show, the ever perceptive and eloquent Pat Rosoff wrote:
“Zbigniew Grzyb makes abstract paintings, as simple as that: Huge, vivid grainy, elephant-hide slabs of paint that seem to come to life as much through the sense of touch as they do through sight. These or not so much ‘pictures’ as they are crusted, color-saturated, graveled surfaces. Built up muscularly, scribbled into existence with the artist’s fist using pipe-sized crayon-like sticks of oil paint.”
He received a Greater Hartford Arts Council/New Boston Fund Individual Artist Fellowship in 2008.
In 2010 Grzyb returned to his native Poland for the first time since1973, for an exhibition of his large paintings at the national Museum in Przemysl. While traveling, mostly by train, he created a series of small pastel works on paper that were shown later that year at Brick Walk Fine Art in West Hartford. The announcement for that show stated, “These works further Gryzb's intense involvement with color and form and are at once authoritative and assured; lyrical and playful.”
In 2011 Real Art Ways presented a show of his works titled “New Works: Branch/Sky Series.
Gryzb has taught at many local schools and art associations including CCSU, the Loomis School, and the West Hartford Art League. He has received numerous notices and reviews in local area newspapers and magazines including reviews by Robert Catlin, Patricia Rosoff, and Owen McNally.
Gryzb says:
“While I paint, I work out ideas to their extremes without attempting to control the destiny of each painting. I control the process to a certain point, but then the painting itself takes over. When I recognize that every element of the painting connects, I stop the process. My painting is not about any theory or –ism. There is not content other than the image, no political message. The lines themselves are only the visual evidence of the energy of the process.”
He is a prolific painter who works in many sizes, formats, and media. His paintings are always beautiful, joyous, and uplifting. Rosoff, writing of Gryzb’s abstractions said:
“In abstract art, realities can be passionately tactile, emotionally eloquent, and perceptually engaging.” Rosoff’s adjectives perfectly describe Zbigniew Gryzb’s works.
Garvey Rita Art & Antiques, “Zbigniew Grzyb”
Grzyb, Zbigniew, Resume, zgrzyb.com
McNally, Owen, “Trimph and Tragedy”, Hartford Courant, 9/17/2001
Mutualart.com, “Zbigniew Gryzb: Selected Pastels”, Brick Walk Fine Art, 2012
Rosoff, Patricia, “Innocent Eye: A Passionate Look at Contemporary Art”, 2013
