About Gary E. Armstrong
The artwork used to celebrate the Newark Peacemaking Summit was created and generously donated by artist Gary Armstrong. Click here to view Summit Artwork. Realizing the importance of utilizing his talents to assist those in need, he regularly donates his expertise to create commissioned works for such non-profit organizations as The United Nations Children’s Fund in New York, The Barry Bonds Foundation in Los Angeles, and the pediatric wing of the Cooper Hospital Medical Center in Camden, New Jersey among many others. Over the last 30 years Armstrong has investigated through painting and drawing the visual comparisons between the microcosmic and macrocosmic worlds. His recent work reflects a culmination of these efforts and focuses on the universality of the circle and square in a minimalist yet evocative manner. Armstrong’s work is held in numerous private collections, has been exhibited at The National Arts Club in New York, The Art Institute of New York City, and The Butler Institute of American Art in Youngstown, Ohio, and is in the permanent collections of the Smithsonian’s Air and Space Museum, the Johnson & Johnson Corporation and the Watson Museum Gallery of Wheaton College in Wheaton, Massachusetts. He also has the unique distinction of being the only artist in the world to have their artwork placed on the surface of the moon, which took place during the Apollo 16 Mission in 1972. He received his Masters of Fine Arts in Painting from the Cranbrook Academy of Art in Bloomfield Hills, Michigan, and his Bachelors of Fine Arts in Painting from The University of Pennsylvania. Armstrong is currently represented by Gallery Blu in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, and serves as a Professor of Graphic Design at The Art Institute of New York City. He lives and works in New Jersey. Resume
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ARTIST STATEMENT Avatar SpiritThe ideas of development and transformation, both during the making of the work and in the appearance of the final image, are fundamental to who I am, and what my art is. As a college professor, the opening of student’s minds to new possibilities and to the unfolding of the creative act is remarkably similar. Thus the sublime expression of the moment is essential to my artwork. My art is influenced by interaction with the environment as expressed in the close observation of myself as nature and the changes that are inherent in science, technology, and the natural world. I enjoy the way string theory physics explains change in the sub- atomic world. How sound embraces the wind, water, the universe, and the inner worlds. I revel in the actual existence and presence of light and how color conveys and captures it. My art expresses energy as image moving in an undefined environment. The transitions from internal space to external space, as well as from microscopic and macrocosmic are consistent themes in my work. My goal is a simple, easily accessible, multiple-layered, harmoniously balanced whole that is made up of several divergent parts. I aspire to maintain the integrity of the vision while it transforms into a form that allows the artist and the viewer to experience something magical and mysterious. The materials used, the lines drawn, the images portrayed all have an expressive quality. I aim for art that aspires; art that is not timid by any means, yet an art that can be very subtle and fine. The challenge for me as an artist is to express an awareness of sight and insight in a simple powerful manner. My wish is to capture an intrinsic character that embraces and contributes to a conviction that art is love, devotion and vision. I call this vision and these series of painting part of my Avatar work.
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