User:Artsgrie





George Grie (born 1962) is a Russian-Canadian artist.

One of the first digital surrealism artists, Grie is known for numerous 3D, 2D, and matte painting images. Born in the USSR during the Soviet regime (aka Джордж Грие or Юрий Грибановский) he did not adopt the conventional and politically correct socialist realism art style.

Style
Grie's artistic style has been heavily influenced by famous surrealists such as René Magritte and Salvador Dalí, fantastic realists Zdzisław Beksiński and Wojciech Siudmak, and surreal photomanipulation artist Jerry Uelsmann. His neo-surrealist artwork is a combination of classic surrealist symbolism with modern fantasy, gothic, and visionary arttendencies. Grie is one of the first artists who started accompany his works with personal literary descriptions.

The artist's digital neo-surrealistic artworks are an extraordinary visual record of his conceptual thoughts, philosophic views, fantasies, and dreams. Often journeying into the subconscious, Grie's photo-realistic artwork shows a magical, playful, and dream-like world laced with detail. Supernatural illusions, mystic romanticism, spiritual magic and gothic overtones are all intertwined in his virtual world. The end result on the viewer’s side is not always comfortable or conventional: there is a great deal of tension and alienation, yet not without an underlying tranquility, in the strange events taking place in the landscape of his imagination.

Life and work
George Grie had received a classical art education in various fine arts institutions before he started his career as a professional fine art painter and graphic artist. In the 1990s, Grie lived and worked in St. Petersburg where he had been an active member of the Pushkinskaya, 10 (art-center) and met many well-known artists and musicians such as Sergey Kuryokhin, Yuri Shevchuk, and Boris Grebenshchikov. His works presented in the State Russian Museum and in private collections in America, Finland, Canada, Russia, and UK.

Grie's artworks are full of strong and powerful images which rely on a visual impact. Use of a photo realistic technique giving a firm contrast between the light source and dark tonality, which can be seen in his early paintings, gives his artworks a graphical appearance. They are about capturing visual paradoxes: sometimes they would depict calm and contemplative moments, like solitude or melancholy. There is a stillness in his themes conveying a sense of inner-reflection and self-observation. Grie's admiration for photography is the reason why he has shifted his artistic preferences from traditional fine art towards computer digital art. His previous experience and classical painting education gave him a complete freedom of both self-expression and self-exploration as an artist. He became a professional multimedia graphic design artist and joined the IBM Corporation as a lead new-media specialist. George was working there together with renown North American illustrator Oleg Lipchenko and generative artist San Base. Today, his prime interest lies within contemporary 2D & 3D graphic design software, 3D models and their applications. In 2002 he initiated a creation of a popular digital art-related web portal – Interartcenter.net. The number of George Grie's artworks have been featured on BBC News. His creations have been featured in many worlds' publications such as a Canadian high-school textbook "Art Works", Illustrated History textbook (Denmark), French school textbook, and University of Washington magazine. Artwork Dreamscape has been featured in Cognitive Science Journal, London University. His work inspired many writes and poets.

"The new form of digital art was born without pompous manifestations and noisy commercials. Some of us still consider digital and 3-dimensional art as something mechanical and artificial, something that is in some way out of human touch. This could not be more wrong. Computers don't make art, people do. Computers are merely creative tools – much sophisticated ones. Once you try them, you will never give up moving forward. There might be just one tiny annoying obstacle between you and your perfect design – lack of imagination."

- George Grie

Work used by publishers

 * 2010 Essay "The Known World" by Rob Dunn University of Washington Conservation Magazine, US
 * 2010 Science Geeks biography and magazine Cover, South Korea
 * 2011 Bowlby's Battle for Round Earth by Frederick Leonhardt, US
 * 2011 Art Works Textbook Emond Montgomery Publications, Canada
 * 2011 Robot Magazine Interview and Covers issues #65, 66, 67, Italy
 * 2012 Haunting Goth book cover, The Sounds of the Uncanny University of Wales Press by Isabella van Elferen, UK
 * 2013 Illustrated History Textbook, Bonnier Publications, Denmark
 * 2017 Bloggers 5ème Textbook, DIFUSION & EMDL Publications, France

Artworks used by recording artists
George Grie's pictures have been used as cover art for more than 50 rock and classical music related projects.
 * London Symphony Orchestra, UK, conducted by maestro Predrag Gosta
 * Wonderworld, UK & Norway, by Life Fire the current band of Uriah Heep's legendary keyboardist Ken Hensley
 * Arc Angel, US, Harlequins of Light by Jeff Cannata
 * Magellan, US, Inert Momentum (TBA) by Trent and Wayne Gardner. The band utilised many guest musicians: Ian Anderson (Jethro Tull), Joey Franco (Twisted Sister), Tony Levin (King Crimson, Peter Gabriel, Pink Floyd)
 * Magellan, US, track "Good to Go" Robert Lamm (lyrics) and Lee Loughnane (trumpet) from the iconic band Chicago
 * Manager, Russia, World Dish, member of Russian punk band Grazhdanskaya Oborona by Yegor Letov
 * Voyager, Australia, I am the revolution, The Meaning of I
 * Lalo Huber, Argentine, Lost in Kali Yuga
 * Winterburst, France, Winterburst, The Mind Cave
 * Kayak, Netherlands, Letters from Utopia
 * Dawn of Destiny, Germany, Rebellion In Heaven
 * Mad Hatter's Den, Finland, Dark Wheel EP, Welcome to the Den, MHD 2014
 * Gong, Gong Maison Live At The Fridge: London 2008
 * Winter in Eden, UK, At the end of the world, Awakening
 * Ken Snyder, US, Dysfunctional Order, Ken won 2007 & 2008 American Music Award in categories Best Instrumental Group & Instrumental Artist of The Year

Exhibitions

 * Mistral gallery, London
 * ArtNova gallery, Stockholm
 * Cinema House gallery, Saint-Petersburg
 * Artson gallery, Helsinki
 * Toronto International Art Fair (TIAF)
 * Artfocus – Canada's indoor art event Toronto
 * Pixel Perfect: The Digital Fine Art Exhibition, Agora gallery New York City
 * Contemporary Art London, New York, Toronto, Art Fair
 * San Base Studio, Toronto