Peter Gric portrays cybernetic organisms like RoboSapiens, probably with more capacities than a mere mortal. They are able to convey feelings and sensitivity which is not so typical of androids. They establish connections through an intrinsic network; a pure information chain which also works as a channel to perpetuate feelings.

Through a universe made of organic and artificial elements, it’s almost unavoidable to establish comparisons between the human being and the machine. Then the most decisive question emerges: What does it mean to be a human being? The current form of existence is based on an entanglement of connections, in which digital technology and the online life are part of a vital throb.

His figures, under a mutation process, explode in tiny and modelling elements, as if they were shedding their skin or going through some other metamorphic process. Gric establishes a wide array of comparisons and he even mixes gynoid with architecture. The interdependence of the being with his own environment, linked together in a ‘biomechanical’ relationship.

What does separate us from a stone? Gric portrays the moment when we go beyond the fine line that separates inner and outer space, under a concept that is not merely spacial, but actually a bridge between the matter, the being and the mind. Complex 3D systems are modelled by a biologic engineering, similar to the DNA of cement, with organic component, almost umbilical.

The androids, with human expression, reveal the mechanism which hides under their skin, exposing their circuits and a mechanic and robotized thought process. Unlike common and asexual robots, his gynoids are young and attractive women, they seem to have a libido and even a seductive sexual pulse.

By Pedro Boaventura • Excerpt from Masters of Painting - Volume 1
In the early nineties, Peter Gric started to discover the possibilities of computer graphics for his paintings. From then on his organic-surreal visual imagery was enriched by complex architectural structures and artefacts. In place of using pencil and sketchbook he began to design his compositions with a 3D visualization software, he started to transfer the virtual reality into painting and consequently found within this fusion to his very unique and distinctive stile.

This method is most obvious in his "Artificial Spaces" series. These paintings are based on three-dimensional geometries built with something like a "virtual building block system" or other mathematical and algorithmic concepts. The creation of these images becomes a play with complex spaces and perspectives in order to create normally non-accessible places in a completely artificial arrangement of space and light. By translating these virtual concepts into paint, Gric attempts to enter into those artificial spaces, and render them tactile. He seeks to give form and substance, bringing them out of their virtual state to a substantial manifestation.

In addition to his Artificial Spaces Gric also experiments with the human nude combined with mineral, technoid and architectural structures. Despite the fact, that the bodies of this "Mnemosyne" series are often dissolved and fragmented, he wittingly obtains or even emphasizes the erotic component. In this series his phantastic and surreal origin is most apparent.

Peter was born in Brno, former Czechoslovakia in 1968 as the only child of the artist married couple Ludmila and Jaroslav Gric. Already in his early childhood his parents recognized and supported his talent for drawing and painting. In the year 1980 his parents decided to emigrate and via Hungary and Yugoslavia they arrived to Austria.

They spent a year in Edlach/Reichenau an der Rax, afterwards they moved to Linz where Peter finished the primary school and a technical college for graphic-design. In 1988 he came to Vienna and started to study at the Academy of Fine Arts in the master class of Prof. Arik Brauer. Already during the study he participated in numerous group exhibitions and started to successfully sell his paintings. He finished the study in 1993 and earned a Masters degree in Fine Arts. 2009 Peter moved from Vienna to Oberhöflein at the Hohe Wand plateau nearby the Eastern Alps. He has two daughters, Emilia (2002) and Natalia (2005).

2010 Gric has been working on Concept Design for Guillermo del Toro's film project "At the Mountains of Madness".

Since 2011 Gric has a teaching assignment at the Vienna Academy of Fine Arts.

Gric's works are in possession of numerous private and public collections: Austria State Gallery Oberes Belvedere in Vienna, Municipal Gallery in Traun / Austria, Künstlerhaus München / Germany, Art Visionary Collection in Melbourne / Australia, Collection Rardy van Soest in Houden / Holland, Trierenberg Art in Traun / Austria, beinArt Collection / Australia, Westermann Collection / Germany.
• 1994 Galerie 1990, Eisenstadt / Austria Kick off, academy of arts, Vienna

• 1995 Rieter Meets Art, Winterthur / Switzerland & Milano / Italy

• 1998 Stadthalle Germering / Germany

• 2000 Phantastik am Ende der Zeit, Stadtmuseum Erlangen / Germany Kunst-Pavillon Alter Botanischer Garten, Munich / Germany

• 2001 Das Alchimistische Werk, Kunstverein Baden / Austria Pandämonium, Burg Liechtenstein / Austria

• 2002 Labyrinthe - Welt als Rätsel, Schloss Honhardt / Germany

• 2003 Das Alchimistische Werk II, das NÖ Dokumentationszentrum für Moderne Kunst, St.Pölten / Austria Art Visionary Collecti-on, Orange Regional Gallery, Orange / Australia Art Visionary Collection, Global Arts Link, Ipswich / Australia Artefakte, Galerie AKUM, Vienna (personal exhibition)

• 2004 Vom Surrealismus zur Moderne, Barockschloss Riegersburg / Austria

• 2005 Erotikon, Galerie 1990, Eisenstadt / Austria Fantastische Welten, Spandauer Zitadelle, Berlin

• 2006 Künstliche Räume, Hypo-Alpe-Adria-Bank, Belgrade (personal exhibition) L'Ange exquis, Sedan / France L'Ange exquis, Grand Palais, Paris / France Künstliche Räume, Karmeliterkirche, Wr. Neustadt / Austria (personal exhibition)

• 2007 NÖ Landesausstellung Feuer und Erde, Waidhofen a.d. Ybbs / Austria L'Ange exquis, Saint Germain des Angles / France Alternative Welten, Galerie Zentrum, Vienna Metamorphosis, Galerie 10, Vienna

• 2008 L'Ange exquis, Rosny sur Seine – Hospices Saint Charles / France Gric: Bilder 1994 – 2008, Galerie bast-art, Vienna (personal exhibition) Drei, Domgalerie Wr. Neustadt / Austria Auf Amors Flügeln, Barockschloss Riegersburg / Austria L'Ange exquis, Viechtach, Altes Rathaus / Germany L'Ange exquis, Viroflay, A l'Ecu de France Gallery / France

• 2009 Peter Gric at the Hofburg, Hofburg Congress Centre, Vienna (personal exhibition) art-imaginär

• 2009, Neustadt / Mussbach / Germany

• 2010 Dreamscape 2010, Amsterdam / The Netherlands Ancient Civilisations / Alien Technologies, Temple of Visions Gallery, Los Angeles / USA Die Macht der Phantasie, Barockschloss Riegersburg / Austria beinArt Collective, Copro Gallery, Santa Monica / USA real-irreal-surreal, Trierenberg Art, Traun / Austria iPax2010, Altes Rathaus, Viechtach / Germany Chimeria, Sedan / France

• 2011 Dystopia, Copro Gallery, Santa Monica / USA

• 2012 Android Awakening (personal exhibition), Copro Gallery, Santa Monica / USA Taboo, Last Rites Gallery, NY / USA Anomalies, Copro Gallery, Santa Monica / USA Jump in the FIre, Start Gallery, Detroit / USA

• 2013 5 Year Annyversary Show, Last Rites Gallery, NY / USA beinArt Collective, Copro Gallery, Santa Monica / USA

• 2013 Art Nocturne Knocke, Knokke-Heist / Belgium Berliner Liste, Berlin / Germany Context Art Miami, Miami / USA
Previous Artist Next Artist