Michael Gregory - Brightness Falls from the Air
American, b.1955
Brightness Falls from the Air, 2007
Oil on Canvas, 60 x 120 inches
08.016

Gift of the Alumni Board of Governors

Born in Los Angeles, Gregory trained at the San Francisco Art Institute in the early 80s. He now maintains a studio in northern California. His subject matter ranges from buildings such as lighthouses or silos to still life objects such as tulips. These subjects are chosen for their symbolic resonance.

Michael Gregory creates his landscape paintings in his studio based on recollections of travels. In 1997, when his mother became ill and he often commuted from his home on the Northern California coast to Sacramento at night, he embarked on a series of nighttime cityscapes. These landscapes have more sky than earth; they explore the line between heaven and earth. “Note the Tower of Babel, the pyramids, church spires, skyscrapers. This reaction to me seems to be a basic response to our physical reality: our uprightness was one of our means of survival. Many of our early rituals were attempts to create an ‘axis mudi’- earth and heaven connected. Our verticality defines us.”