BIOGRAPHY
Larry Graeber, a Texas-based artist, considers himself a painter and sculptor. He presently works in San Antonio and Marfa TX studios.
Raised in Austin the oldest of three children, the son of an architect, and homemaker/ volunteer. Larry was always involved in making things: forts, treehouses and down hill coasters. In school it was the industrial arts and architecture classes that peaked his interest, learning to use tools and to draw ideas. Summers were spent working in his grandad’s lumber yard, Graeber Lumber.
Thinking he might follow in his dad’s footsteps college studies began with architectural intentions. Challenged by academia and dyslexic complications Larry changed direction to studying printmaking, jewelry, painting and sculpture, even a little filmmaking. By his second year he had already found a studio in downtown San Marcos that he devoted to painting.
Graeber began exhibiting in 1971, curated into Texas Painting and Sculpture Exhibition, Dallas Museum of Fine Arts. His first major one person exhibition was in 1974, Works from a Small Duplex, curated by then director John Leeper and hosted by the McNay Art Museum in their upstairs galleries. After a brief hiatus Larry acquired gallery representation in Houston and Dallas spending subsequent years devoted to these venues and some sizable steel sculpture making. These years also included inclusion in two books; Art at Our Doorstep 2008 compiled by Riley Robinson (Artpace) and Trinity Press. Texas Abstract; modern/contemporary, 2014 Michael Paglia and Jim Edwards, Frisco Books.
In 2011 Larry turned his attention to curating, mounting the exhibit Margins; six artists, catalog with essay for the campus gallery, UTSA. In 2016 he was invited to participate in the first pop-up exhibit at the McNay Art Museum, Meet the Future 2016, curated by Rene Barilleaux. Just prior to the pandemic he and Sterling Allen collaborated in the project room of Blue Star Contemporary, with an exhibit of wall and floor sculpture titled Formal Proof, an accompanying catalog with essay by Anjali Gupta, Fall 2019.
CV
Besides two years of college:
Intermittently audited classes in sculpture, painting, film, jewelry and printmaking.
Exhibiting began in 1971, Texas Painting and Sculpture Exhibition, Dallas Museum of Fine Arts.
First solo show, 1974, Works from a Small Duplex, curated by then director John Leeper and hosted by the McNay Art Museum
Recent events:
2024
Water’s Edge, Rockport Center for the Arts, painting, sculpture March 9 – June 26
Material Evolution, selected work from TSG, Gallery 2000, Austin community college, Highland campus, January 6 – March 7, Lana Meador curator
ART EINDHOVEN, Netherlands art fair, solo video presentation, February 3–4
2023
Reflected Light, Flight Gallery BSAC – paintings, sculpture, works on paper
Foil – foil leaf paintings, sculpture – Magical Realism Studio
TSG group show – Irving Arts Center
Novel Ideas Art Book Fair, Contemporary at Blue Star, May 5
International Sculpture Day, open studio April 29
Blue Star Arts Complex Pop-up blurb book
Pop-up exhibit at the Blue Star Arts Complex: paintings, sculpture and two works on paper, February. This exhibit illustrates examples of paintings, sculpture and recent foam board pieces, work that began in early spring 2022.
2022
Summer ’22, blurb book: paintings, sculpture and some foil leaf application
Red Dot, Contemporary at Blu Star October
texas sculpture sltx, 52 texas sculptors – art museum TX sugar land, aug 19 – oct 16
Collect Art publication, included in Spring issue
International Sculpture Day – open studio, April 30
2021
Altamira, Sculpture Month Houston; primal urge to create, The Silos, Huston
New Texas Talent XXVIII Craighead Green Gallery, Dallas
state of sculpture, TSG Exhibition at the San Angelo Museum of Fine Arts:
sculpture today – Dock Space Gallery, exhibition and auction TSG
open studio – International sculpture day
Witnesses – Works on Paper, March Spotlight, Platform Gallery (web)
Jan – Feb – “ON THE BAYOU” TSG Exhibition, Redbud Gallery, Houston
2020
Dec – Where to Look – Witnesses; blurb book, paintings and paperworks
July – Coming and Going; blurb book, works on paper 1990 – 2000 2020
first quarter blurb book – Landscapes, Portraits and Assemblies
Art Folio 2020 curated collection edited by Douglas King, Juror Mary Beaudry
Creativpaper Vol 2, issue 018, pages 40 – 45
Closing of exhibit Formal Proof; blurb book illustrates exhibit at Blue Star Contemporary Formal Proof;
Sterling Allen and Larry Graeber with essay by Anjali Gupta
2019
pop up Gallery 90 – 13 artists, three openings, nov 29 – dec 28
Formal Proof – exhibit at BSC: blurb book with essay by Anjali Gupta
Blue Star Contemporary: Formal Proof; Sterling Allen and Larry Graeber, Project Room
Glasstire – interview by Gary Sweeney December 9, 2019
State Wide; Texas Sculpture Group exhibit Houston Baptist University
Studio Debris – Sculpture, blurb book with the essay by Matthew Mendez
When They Appear; Marilyn Jolly & Larry Graeber, Grayduck Gallery, Austin, catalog
March Spotlight; Platform Gallery, Larry Graeber, Works on Paper, Seattle WA
1340 Art Magazine 2019//01 – page 45; Creatures, oil on canvas 2018
STATEMENT
principles of elements –
Painting, sculpture and work on paper are my present confidants in expressing and exploring. In a modest studio, quiet and familiar their activation has a momentum, that is exhilarating for me to be a part of.
In the Spring of 2022, while working on a sculpture and looking for a medium to apply to it besides paint, using foil leaf occurred to me. Having used silver and gold leaf on frames some years ago, and occasionally applying chocolate foil wrappers as a collage ingredient in some of my works on paper, it seemed worth trying. To my surprise, the foil leaf comes in multiple colors and has an extraordinary fidelity and odd luminosity for the surface in which it covers. The metallic essence and color suggests a new orientation with nature, one stressed and out of sorts, brittle.
Today, I am using it in both my painting and sculpture.
My studio fundamentally consists of three stations: a painting easel wall, a table in which works on paperwork are developed and a designated shop area to build sculpture.
