Creator Record
Images
Metadata
Artist |
Van Maanen, Gregory |
Category |
env builder |
Biography |
Gregory Van Maanen (b. 1947) Gregory Van Maanen was born in Paterson, New Jersey, in 1947. Van Maanen, a Purple Heart recipient, served in the Vietnam War between June 1968 and January 1970. Plagued by several near-death experiences and the extreme violence of war, Van Maanen found his art making offered an escape from the faces and disturbing memories that dwelled deep in his mind. He described it as "self-preservation sometimes shared with others." Although the effects of his post-traumatic stress disorder have lessened over the years, he remains a firm believer in the healing power of art for veterans and nonveterans alike. Today, his body of work includes several thousand paintings, drawings, sculptures, and found objects featuring skulls, all-seeing eyes, open palms, glowing hearts, and a range of personalized symbols of protection and "good magic." The Kohler Foundation, Inc. acquired a large collection of Van Maanen's work-the entirety of his New Jersey apartment-which includes paintings, sculptures, cast heads, amuletic pieces of wood or bone, drawings, and embellished furniture. In 2007, the collection was gifted to the John Michael Kohler Arts Center. Van Maanen continues to create art and resides in upstate New York. His work has been widely shown in group exhibitions and is in several permanent collections, including the New Orleans Museum of Art, First Bank of Minneapolis, National Vietnam Veterans Art Museum, New Jersey State Council of the Arts, Jersey City Museum, Morris Museum. Van Maanen's work has been in several solo and group exhibitions at the John Michael Kohler Arts Center, including American Story (2009), Escape Routes (2016), and Gregory Van Maanen: A World We Cannot See (2016). |
