James Grashow
Born 1942, Brooklyn, NY, lives and works in Redding, CT
The Great Monkey Project, 2006, detail of site-specific installation of 100 corrugated cardboard monkeys, dimensions various, Lent by the Artist, Courtesy Allan Stone Gallery, New York, NY
Using one of the most ordinary materials—corrugated cardboard—as his primary medium, James Grashow creates amazing sculptures of flora, fauna, and the built environment. Among his many projects are an entire zoo’s worth of animals, birds in their habitats, cities with skyscrapers, an aquarium stocked with sea creatures, and a huge dragon breathing fire. Having worked with cardboard since childhood, the artist describes it as a friendly material that “knows it’s going to be garbage and is grateful to have a second opportunity.” This playful statement is indicative of Grashow’s take on creativity; he is endlessly exuberant, wildly inventive, obsessively energetic, and as animated as his monkeys.
Grashow created The Great Monkey Project specifically for the Going Ape exhibition. It consists of 100 monkeys which hang from trapezes in a boisterous arrangement in the Museum’s Grand Staircase as well as a linocut print of the monkeys, almost abstract in its dense overlapping of monkey limbs and tails. The monkeys are oddly both cartoon-like and lifelike as they swing, reach, grab, and interact with each other in ways that mimic human camaraderie. Grashow celebrates the zaniness of monkeys at play while recognizing our natural delight in encountering these creatures.
