BIOGRAPHY
Born in 1961 Simon spent his formative years growing up in a small country town located in the beautiful English county of West Yorkshire. Up until the age of 14 he lived between England and Nigeria. His father worked for a number of German and Swiss owned Textile companies as a chemist and technical director specializing in color formulations. 'From my father I gained a real understanding of the complexities of color. My figurative work is an attempt to understand mood related through color. My early works represent a frenetic pace of life, whereas the pieces I make today are a deliberate attempt to rediscover a more harmonious way of being'.
Following his fine art studies he found some success during his early 20's. However it wasn't enough to support a young family. His passion for art led him towards an early career in the graphics industry, followed by cinema advertising and later working for a number of international publishing houses. 'In the mid 90's my life took a dramatic turn when I stepped into the world of Mergers & Acquisitions, working as a conference speaker, travelling around Europe and America and eventually becoming CEO one of the group's European subsidiaries'.
In 2003 Simon rediscovered his first love and began producing again, building his initial collection around his experiences in the often frenetic world of corporate finance. The style of these early works create a sense of detachment from the speed and pace of corporate finance with the main setting being New York. At the same time they draw a clear stylistic line between his work then and his work today. "After relocating to Switzerland, my work began to evolve around my reflections on the environment of my home village of Cully, Bourg-en-Lavaux (a UNESCO protected wine growing region)",
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"I tend to use Cully and the region as my canvas, however the theme of my work lies elsewhere and is based on recovering time. I look to help the viewer to enter a world we are all familiar with but tend to find difficult to engage with in a meaningful way. In an age where we struggle with what I call 'the tyranny of the urgent' in others words 'urgent things taking the place of important things' finding space has become more difficult. We cleverly invent gadgets to save time, however we tend to fill the saved time with more busyness! The works are formulated to aid people in reflection and to 'press the pause button on purpose'. Cully is my inspiration for this. For many, it is a place people visit to find space. This region was voted by New York Times readers as the 25th place you must visit in the world ".
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Simon Gregory
5thavenueartist
