1. What’s on your studio playlist when you’re working?
Gregory Eltringham: "I used to have something on all the time. A lot of painting was made from 1996-2011 listening to music on a single CD player and i would just loop a cd for the entire session. Kitty Wells or Deltron 3030 were on repeat for a couple years. I mostly work in silence now. I put on Spotify for chores."
2. We understand that you’re very well traveled, where’s one place you’re dying to get back to, and one that you would never want to revisit?
"I really want to see my friends again, so that would be a list, but I’d especially like to get back to Germany, which I was traveling to on almost a yearly basis prior to Covid. I also really want to get back to Alaska, which I’ve visited once and need to experience again. As far as never wanting to revisit (but probably will) is Iceland. In 2017 I had an accident an hour off the plane, day 1 of a five country trip, and it was a struggle due to the care I received there. I also never want to revisit Florida, a feeling I think I share with many."
3. What was the strangest compliment you received during your opening for I Need Everybody to be Aroused?
"Given the circumstances, it was a lovely opening, and people were really enthusiastic about the work. I had some really great conversations and it was very generous for people to come out in this unusual time.
The strangest compliment was from the people who showed up to the gallery and pretended there wasn’t a pandemic. Perhaps trying to convey that everything was normal. The creative ways people wore their masks, for those that did. On the forehead, under the chin. It was a real devil may care attitude that really was a heartwarming gesture. Seriously though, wear a mask."
4. What’s your favorite work by another artist in you house? Can you show us a picture?
"I have many favorites, but this one is so beautifully personal and sincere I love it for so many reasons. The image can not convey it. If anyone wants to come do a studio visit I’d be happy to show it to them."
5. Biggest art world pet peeve?
"People who like to tell people there are rules for what you can and can’t do or can or can’t make as an artist. Give me a break. Fascist art police. We have enough Fascists."
6. If you could steal one work of art and get away with it, what would it be?
"I can’t even imagine the gravity of doing something like that, but it would be Carmelina. It’s at the MFA Boston, worth the trip."
7. Who would you want to play you if they ever made a biopic?
"The one(s) I would want are dead, but my friends did suggest Billy Bob Thornton. And David Cross."
8. What are you reading these days?
"I have four texts I’m rereading from this quarter in my classes:
Seeing Is Forgetting the Name of the Thing One Sees: Conversations with Robert Irwin, two books from the Documents of Contemporary Art series Painting, and Ethics, and The Global Contemporary and the Rise of New Art Worlds.
I just read A Woman of Means, and before that Humankind: A Hopeful History."
9. If you started a rumor about yourself; what would it be?
"That I retired from painting, just quit."
10. Would you rather have your Google searches made public, or every photo on your phone?
"Oh google searches for sure. Who cares what you look at on the internet, it’s so random, and anyone can see it anyway. My photos are my life, no one needs to see that."
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