Gregory Kondos (1923-2021) Biography

Gregory Kondos (1923-2021) Biography

Gregory Kondos (1923-2021) painted the perceived colors of his environment, whether that might be the forests of Northern California, the mountainous Yosemite National Park, or the shores of his ancestral Greece.

Born in Lynn, Massachusetts to Greek immigrant parents, Gregory Kondos moved to California with his family at a young age. Encouraged by his parents to live his particular version of the American Dream, Gregory Kondos attended art school in Sacramento and Los Angeles. After taking several art-related jobs and appointments, Kondos began teaching at his alma mater, Sacramento City College, in 1956, and continued to work there until his retirement in 1982 (whereupon the school renamed their exhibition space the Gregory Kondos Gallery). 

Over the course of his life, Gregory Kondos won several awards, including those at Winter Invitationals of the California Palace of the Legion of Honor, a Dillard Collection prize, and an appointment as Full Academician at the National Academy of Design in 1995.

Gregory Kondos also had an extensive exhibition history, including several one-person shows at galleries in the Sacramento and San Francisco area and group exhibitions, such as his 1993 invitation to show at the American Academy of Arts and Letters in New York. Gregory Kondos also served as an artist-in-residence at Yosemite National Park (1990) and spent many summer months there. Influences were Maynard Dixon, William de Kooning, Paul Cezanne, and Paul Gauguin.

Education
  • 1941 - Sacramento Junior College, CA
  • 1946 - Art Center College of Design, Los Angeles, CA
  • California State Univerisity, Sacramento, CA - Masters
  • 2019 "Along the Distant Mesa: An Homage to Maynard Dixon" Mark Sublette Medicine Man Gallery, Tucson, AZ
  • 2017 "25th Anniversary Celebration" Mark Sublette Medicine Man Gallery, Tucson, AZ
  • April 9, 2013 - Gregory Kondos Day Sacramento, awarded official annual day of celebration
  • December 2012 - scheduled release of book celebrating his lifework, published by the Crocker Art Museum, Sacramento, CA
  • 2012 - "El Capitan" placed in permanent collection of Shanghai Art Museum, P. R. of China
  • 2012 - "Half Dome" placed in permanent collection of Shanghai Modern Museum, P. R. of China
  • 2012 - 4th Annual Small Works Show and Sale, Mark Sublette Medicine Man Gallery, Santa Fe, NM
  • 2011 - "The Pacific Coast" place in permanent collection of Ningbo Museum, Zhejiang, P. R. of China.
  • 2010 - World Expo, Ningbo Museum, Zhejiang, P. R. of China
  • 2010 - "French Irises" placed in permanent collection of Ningbo Museum, P. R. of China. The city of Ningbo, across the bay from Shanghai, received the highest architectural award for all of China in 2009.
  • 2009 - Historic Trading Posts of the West, Mark Sublette Medicine Man Gallery, Tucson, AZ
  • 2007 - Golden Bear Artist of the Year Award, CA Arts Council, State of California
  • 2007 - Arizona: A Millennium of Arizona Art, Mark Sublette Medicine Man Gallery, Tucson, AZ
  • 2006-2007 "From Mount Olympus to the Olympus Mountains" travelling exhibit showing in : Mount Olympus in Greece, University of Washington in Seattle, Washington, Mark Sublette Medicine Man Gallery in Tucson, Arizona, University of Pacific in Stockton, California, and Bakersfield Museum of Art, Bakersfield, CA
  • 2006 - Prize Award, National Academy of Design in New York
  • 1998 - Featured in a PBS Special Documentary, A Passion for the Land. Commissioned for a mural in Sacramento International Airport, CA.
  • 1995 - Elected National Academy of Design, New York City.
  • 1994 - Distinguished Service Award, California State University or Sacramento, CA.
  • 1990 - Artist in residence, Yosemite National Park.
  • 1973 - Work is included in A Sense of Place: the Artist
  • 1969 - Has solo exhibition at the Carolina Palace of the Legion of Honors, San Francisco.
  • 1966 - Work is included in The West- 80 Contemporaries organized by the University of Arizona, Tucson. Wins a Dillard Collection purchase prize in the exhibition Art on Paper, selected by Thomas B. Hess for the Weatherspoon Art Gallery, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill. Work is included in the - National Small Paintings Exhibition, juried by Norman Geske and Herbert Katzman for the University of Omaha.
  • 1965 - Work is included in the 84th San Francisco Art Institute Annual Exhibition, juried by John I.A. Bauer, Gerald Nordland, and Alan Soloman.
  • 1963 - Wins one of ten awards in the Fourth Winter Invitational, California Palace of the Legion of Honors, San Francisco, for painting Sea Breeze. Serves as a summer guest instructor, University of California, Berkeley, Extension Division. Has solo exhibition at the Pioneer Museum and Haggin Art Galleries, Stockton, California.
  • 1962 - Wins one of nine awards in the Third Winter Invitational, California Palace of the Legion of Honors, San Francisco, for the painting Greece. Appointed chairman of the art department, Sacramento City College. Has first solo exhibition at the E.B. Crocket Art Gallery, Sacramento.
  • 1958 - Cofounds Artist Cooperative Gallery with Wayne Thiebaud, Russel Solomon, Pat Dullanty, Robert Else, Fred Schmid, and others. Has solo exhibition at Artist Cooperative Gallery. Teacher in Art Department, Sacramento Junior College, CA. Taught for 24 years and retired in 1982. Founded the campus art gallery, named in his honor.
  • Shanghai Art Museum, P. R. of China
  • Shanghai Moderm Mouseum, P. R. of China
  • Ningbo Museum, Zhejiang, P. R. of China
  • Hirshhorn Museum, Washington, D.C.
  • Phoenix Art Museum, AZ
  • Oakland Museum, CA
  • Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington, DC.
  • Crocker Art Museum, Sacramento, CA
  • Sacramento Museum, CA
  • Santa Barbara Museum, CA
  • Monterey Penninsula Museum, CA
  • Fresno Museum, CA
  • St. Mary's Museum, Moraga, CA
  • Yosemite Museum, Yosemite, CA
  • Sacramento City College Museum, CA
  • Reives Arches Museum, France
  • Shanghai Art Museum, P. R. of China
  • Shanghai Moderm Mouseum, P. R. of China
  • Ningbo Museum, Zhejiang, P. R. of China
  • Hirshhorn Museum, Washington, D.C.
  • Phoenix Art Museum, AZ
  • Oakland Museum, CA
  • Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington, DC.
  • Crocker Art Museum, Sacramento, CA
  • Sacramento Museum, CA
  • Santa Barbara Museum, CA
  • Monterey Penninsula Museum, CA
  • Fresno Museum, CA
  • St. Mary's Museum, Moraga, CA
  • Yosemite Museum, Yosemite, CA
  • Sacramento City College Museum, CA
  • Reives Arches Museum, France
  • 1997 - Leading the West: One Hundred Contemporary Painters and Sculptors by Donald J. Hagerty
  • 1999 - Southwest Art Magazine, February, The Solitude of Space
  • 2018 - "Maynard Dixon's American West: Along the Distant Mesa" by Mark Sublette