Please join us for the opening reception of Shelf Life, a solo exhibition of paintings by Tom Gregg.

Kansas City artist Tom Gregg paints fantastically realistic still lifes that pair bright color palettes with object clusters driven by metaphor and narrative. Ranging from the everyday beauty of melons and persimmons, to the romance of stemware and elegant ashtrays, to the ominous look of grenades posed in candy hued backgrounds, Gregg observes objects and their environment as a visual drama that provide him with a range of formal elements to explore and the unique ability to exert control over the scenes.

Gregg’s interest in still life painting stems from a fascination with the simple and profound existence of objects. Objects share the world of people while remaining independent of our struggles and exertions. Objects maintain a steadfast otherness while acquiring their meaning through our physical world: they are of our world, yet in a distinct world of their own — the world of things.