Monumental Monochrome features Greece

Josh Garrick is a teacher first and an artist second.

He wanted to teach at the School of Visual Arts in New York City but, Garrick said, the school would not let him unless he became a professional artist first.

“I had a master’s in fine arts from Columbia University but they did not care about that,” Garrick said. “So I became a professional artist so that I could become a teacher.”

Garrick’s most recent showcase as a well-known artist is called “Monumental Monochrome,” and it debuted last Friday at the Lake Eustis Museum of Art.

Garrick entered the world of photography as a professional almost immediately after graduate school. He eventually received a position as a professor of ancient Greek art and culture at the School of Visual Arts and taught for 11 years, during which he led 15 student trips to Greece.

In recognition of Garrick’s teachings, the Greek Ephorate of Antiquities gave him special permission to enter the Parthenon during its reconstruction. He climbed the scaffolding to the roof of the structure to take photos.

Garrick describes the experiences as “the most important day of my life … short of being born.”

“[Garrick] is a very well-known photographer, so he brings both the art of photography and the fact that he’s an antiquities scholar to this work and that kind of takes it to a whole new level of interest,” Richard Colvin, the director of the Lake Eustis Museum of Art, said.

One side of the room displayed a piece called Postcards from Socrates, which consisted of a mural small pictures of Grecian places.

“His work revolves around the depiction of the old and the new in Greece,” Colvin said.

This is not Garrick’s first art show, though. He has had many one-man exhibitions throughout the New York City area as well as Central Florida. In this exhibit, Garrick revealed some new works, and three pieces of the collection are to become permanent pieces in three different museums.

Dibond aluminum-based prints, which are the three large works displayed directly in front of the entrance to the museum, are monochromatic images that seem to glow as the sun shines through the windows. The photographs, printed onto brushed aluminum, add a new visual dimension to the universally recognizable symbol of ancient Greek architecture that is the Parthenon.

Fine-art curators Bill and Kathy Hohns purchased one of the three large pieces with an image of a large slab of marble being lifted by a crane at the Parthenon during the restoration of the structure. It is a work that captures the old and the new and brings them together in one still moment.

This piece will be on display, along with many works from other Florida artists, at the Museum of Florida Art in Deland for the “Strappo” show beginning Monday, April 29. The piece will then become a permanent installment in that museum.

Garrick, being a fine-arts curator as well, shares a certain respect for Bill in the world of art.

Bill described Garrick as a talented artist that should be on display for everyone to see because well-deserved artistic talent should be acknowledged and praised.

The elation in Garrick’s voice was evident as he spoke to a small crowd of art enthusiasts about his new art that had finally come to fruition. The making of these large format works was a process of printing four times over on a thin aluminum sheet that is glued to a thicker plastic sheet for support. The idea to create large prints had been in his mind for so long that seeing them finally brought to life made him overjoyed.

“Monumental Monochrome” will be on display through Sunday, May 27.

Many at the exhibition opening had complimentary words to say about Garrick’s work, but Colvin summarized Garrick’s exhibit with two words – “classically exquisite.”