Gregor Graf in Chicago

Gregor Graf was not sure how he was going to creatively react when he arrived at his residence in Chicago. He needed to learn how to work with the environment and himself in that environment. “This has been my first time, staying in a foreign city alone, for a long amount of time. You start thinking about your part and place in life.” This self-reflection led him to make self-portraits for the first time. Four of the larger pieces of the show are 3’ by 4’ self-portraits. Even though photography is a medium Gregor works with often, he chose to draw his self-portraits. “There is a different language with drawing, a lighter touch.” A lighter touch is what Gregor learned he needed. Before coming to America he had ideas about what a stereotypical or archetypical American was. “First, I wanted to make portraits of myself as “typical American guy”, but I learned there are not a lot of “typical American guys” around, or how I had pictured them. There was the way I perceived Americans and then how I perceived myself as an American. The self-portraits are very much “me”, looking in an American influenced mirror.” Gregor portrayed himself as a security guard, a BBQ cook, a man in a suit and a cowboy. “The cowboy was more of a wish, of course. I was feeling like a lonesome cowboy when I came to America.”
Another aspect of America that Gregor was interested in was the culture and design of advertising. Gregor did a series of drawings of condos including inscriptions of their pricings and descriptions. There are also drawings of photos of businessmen appearing in their own advertisements- which Gregor found particularly peculiar. He decided to only draw the businessmen and their wording, taking out the context of the ad.

Heaven Gallery is a nonprofit art gallery devoted to exhibiting the work of new and emerging artists. Heaven Gallery was founded by Dave Dobie in 1997 and established in the Flat Iron Building in Wicker Park (it has since been relocated across the street). Heaven showcases new artists as well as new forms of art, which include painting, sculpture, photography, theatre, dance, film, video, digital art, sound, and more. For more information please visit: http://www.heavengallery.com | 1550 N. Milwaukee Ave, 2nd Floor, Chicago, IL, 60622 | 773.983-6905