Carole Pinto Fine Arts

Since the 1970’s, Mary Grigoriadis, an early fixture in the Pattern and Decoration Movement, has created secular icons that are luscious in both color and texture.  She applies layer upon layer of oil paint to build up a sumptuous, glowing surface of pronounced brushstrokes.  ‘Just as Josef Albers investigated color relationships using squares within squares, Grigoriadis explores the interaction of patterns using a bilaterally symmetrical format of frames within frames,’ (Hayden Herrera, Art in America, 1995).   She excels at incorporating poly-ethnic borders from sources as diverse as Byzantine icons, Native American fabrics and Islamic architecture.  Rooted in her personal background, the paintings also explore the use of pattern in various art historical moments and in women’s crafts from western and non-western cultures.  In 1972, Grigoriadis was a founding member of A.I.R.,, the first gallery for women artists in the United States.  Her work has been reviewed in Art in America, Artforum, ARTNews, and the New York Times, and has exhibited at the Whitney Museum, the Brooklyn Museum, the Aldrich Museum, the Queens Museum, the Bronx Museum, the Kresge Museum in the U.S., and  the Museum of Contemporary Art in Thessaloniki, Greece.