Fine Art degree from Cypress College, Cypress, CA
Professional Artist and Freelance Graphic Designer, 2003 – Present
Swenson Fine Art — Laguna Beach, CA
Swenson Fine Art, Laguna Beach, CA — featured artist, August-September 2010 (see ads and show cards below)
Saito's Japanese Restaurant, Seattle, WA — collection
of ten pieces adorn the entire restaurant
Margrit Goverdhan, Mumbai, Maharashtra, India
Recent Press: |
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Gumpert and Currier
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Now showing at Childhood's End Gallery in Olympia are paintings by Chuck Gumpert and Alfred Currier, plus a group of the very popular half-man, half-bird ceramic sculptures by the husband-and-wife team of John and Robin Gumaelius. I'm going to limit my comments to the paintings by Gumpert and Currier, two radically different artists whose contrasting styles complement one another nicely.Expand your horizons during Chuck Gumpert creates bold, lightfilled For Chuck, “painting is transportation "When working on a large canvas,
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Mandy Main will unveil a series of New to DragonFire this year, metal Catherine will unveil work from her |
“I know that within my heart and Objects of war are created from |
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Published...
"The
Philopher Arrives at an Unintended Destination" will
appear on a hardcover edition of the Journal of Philosophy
of Education, to be published in Oxford, UK.
Vision
of Sound
"Transient
Topologies" appears on the cover of Berlin
artist Simon Vincent's "Transients 1" online
CD
(Vincent's "abstract experimentalism" sounds can
be heard
here and here)
Paintings
featured in South Sound Magazine's "Idea
Home"
The
collection of Becky Benko and Randy Holland
“Two Vaults”: Adventures in art (and navigation)
Seattle
Contemporary Art Examiner — Karen Fleur Tofti-Tufarelli
July 10, 2009
On
the corner of one of Tacoma's newer “artsy” areas – between
a little bakery, and a few doors down from a trendy movie house
-- the Two Vaults Gallery www.twovaults.com buzzes on a recent
Tacoma “Third Thursday” Artwalk. The gallery is a
welcome anchor in a perplexing, seemingly ever-changing web of
street renovations in the Stadium District just north of downtown
Tacoma www.stadiumbusinessdistrict.com/.
Getting to Two Vaults is an adventure – even before the art. One minute one is rolling smoothly down fresh asphalt on a seemingly brand new street; the next minute one is bumping along gravel to a peremptory “street closed” sign, with a stunning view of Mount Rainier to ease the pain.
But the trip brings rewards. Steadfast in its devotion to the bold, bright, and the vivid, this month the gallery is featuring artist Chuck Gumpert.
Gumpert’s abstracts -- while a little less layered than those of a Mark Tobey, with their across-the-decades resonance – use color to spur the imagination.
Gallery owner Paula Tutmarc-Johnson notes that Gumpert's art is "completely random, multi-layered, constantly active, in motion; (it's) art that changes with light, with one's mood."
For instance, "Effervescent" and "Forest Walk" (mixed media), use blues, greens and yellows and the vague outline of stair shapes to direct us to some nether worldly celestial place. "Keeping Focus" uses reds and yellows to draw us further and further into a corner of the composition -- could it be a cave?
Two Vaults also is featuring some charming French café-inspired works by Seattle artist Karl Krogstad.
Christopher
Mathie – Chuck Gumpert:
Creating Art Together
Gallery Notes — Laguna Beach, CA, September-October, 2008
Their shared love of art was obvious. They
admired each others work. Exploration of
the art world created an intense and
powerful bond that the two have enjoyed
for more than five years. Their nights
together are spent painting with the
assistance of energetic music and a glass
of red wine.
Exploring both man made and natural
forms, Christopher Mathie and Chuck
Gumpert find their vision and vocabulary
have merged. Although their separate art
styles are different and individual, they are
similar. Looking at their work one may get
the impression that two artists went on a
journey together, experiencing the same
things they then painted. Although the
results were two different interpretations,
one could literally take a section from each
person's painting, merge them together,
and still have a unified statement.
Presently their studio and home are situated on a one-acre farm
overlooking
the Puget Sound and Bainbridge Island — just a 30 minute
ferry ride from
Seattle, Washington. Two faithful dogs, Lily and Diva, eight
chickens and two
fish keep them company. An abundance of flowers fill their landscape
and
gentle Chopin Nocturnes fill the air when Christopher plays piano.
The two artists have just completed a one month exhibition of
their work at
Marion Meyer Contemporary Art located at 354 N. Coast Highway.
Each individual offers a different view of the world.
Cannon Beach Gazette — October 18, 2007
| DragonFire
Studio and Gallery 123 S. Hemlock St. Ecola Square dragonfirestudio.com Owners: Mari Rockett and Eeva Lantela DragonFire represents over 115 artists; all but eight are from the Northwest. Their common threads are: a distinctive personal style that is evolving, mastery of their medium and a different lens for viewing the world we live in, a lens that captures the emotional, potential and uniqueness\of of their subjects. They are chosen for that individuality. Here are four examples of the diversity that is DragonFire. Mike Smith, a Northwest artist, is one of the newest members of DragonFire. " My father emigrated from Scotland, so I'm a first-generation American. I have been a painter and sculptor all my life, beginning in abstract work, and arriving here, wherever 'here' is now. Life is good!" Mike is known for his delightful watercolor, oil and pastel paintings and beautifully executed animal bronze sculptures that reflect his life on a small farm. Horses, sheep, cats, dogs and geese pass in view daily and become entwined in his refreshing and colorful work. While pets wander through many of his watercolors, exotic animals tend to prowl the gardens as well. Mike lives up to Picasso's comment that he knows the sky is blue, so he can paint it any way he wants. Mike populates the rolling Northwest countryside with giraffes lunching, elephants trumpeting and whales spouting in the middle of a fountain. |
Chuck Gumpert is
a Northwest artist |
From the LiveJournal blog of Geoff Cain
2007-09-29 18:11:00
Current mood: Inspired
Current music: Rondo alla Turca -- Mozart (Buchbinder on the piano!)
Art Galleries
I am sure people know about the mini-renaissance in art that
is happening in Tacoma here. There are a lot of artists moving
down here (or at least commuting) to take advantage of cheap
rent here in Tacoma (relative to Seattle). For instance,
you can get gallery/retail space at Sanford's in Tacoma for
$250 a month and it is this huge, beautiful rabbit warren
three story place that goes on forever. There are great parties
thrown there on the week-ends too. Anyway, we were down town
today and hit some of these art galleries and one of them
features my favorite local artist, Chuck Gumpert who calls
himself an abstract expressionist but I think he is more
than that -- he has all of the depth and few of the abuses
of other artists who grab that moniker. Here is one of his
paintings:
This is hanging at TwoVaults Studio -- called that because it is in an old brick building that has two bank vaults in it. Very cool art studio.
(Comment)
I love this
tlv100
2007-10-01 10:57 pm UTC (link)
it's insanely beautiful. And I love the way you put that, "all of the
depth and few of the abuses" of the "modern artist."
I'm still high on the Guggenheim; that place touched me on so many levels. I used to think I didn't like modern art. I must have been thinking of all of its abusers, and now I'm seeing the depth, ay?
"Mysterious
Monarch" appears
on the cover of Tacoma singer/songwriter Paula Tutmarc Johnson's
"Nomad
Heart" CD
(Paula's music has been very influential
in many of my paintings, and can be sampled
and purchased here)
Artists
combine to create organic show
By Natasha Jaksich
Tacoma Weekly
Published on: August 02, 2007
The new “Prevail” exhibit at Two Vaults Gallery
brings to life two of Tacoma’s most well-known artists
in a show that has depth, life and artistic talent.
Gallery owner Paula Tutmarc-Johnson knew for a while that she wanted one of
her best-selling artists, Chuck Gumpert, back again for a solo show.
“His work just speaks to people,” she commented. With his broad brush strokes, Gumpert’s work is organic and full of life. Using mixed media, Gumpert said, many of his works of art simply transport him into another world. With one look at his newest series of paintings at the gallery, one can easily see that.
In “Star
Seed,” a larger-than-life canvas full of red, blue and
orange depicts something almost cosmic and unknown, perhaps a
pod of some type with seeds coming out of it.
Gumpert said he has always been interested in the world unknown and tends to paint items that take on an organic feeling. However, Gumpert said, art is totally up to the person viewing the piece of work, and he said many people see different things when they look at his art.
In “New Wind Blowin’,” a female pregnant figure is dominant, apparently hanging laundry up to dry. As Gumpert admitted, the female figure was actually drawn subconsciously at first. “It just sort of evolved into a woman,” he recalled, adding that the artwork’s title is reminiscent of a song lyric by Natalie Merchant.
When painting, Gumpert said, he likes to listen to contemporary music to gather inspiration. During the artist reception during Art Walk July 19, Tutmarc-Johnson had such music playing in the gallery.
Paired nicely with Gumpert’s organic art is internationally collected Raku potter Christopher Mathie. A local artist, Mathie said he agreed to do the show after Tutmarc-Johnson’s original choice, who was supposed to be paired with Gumpert, wasn’t able to show. Because of this, the work currently on display is all pieces Mathie created within a two-week time period. “I work better under pressure,” Mathie admitted. From his boldly colored pottery, however, you wouldn’t think at all that these were all last-minute pieces.
Mathie’s continuous strive to create a perfectly-formed piece of pottery is perhaps what makes him so acclaimed in the pottery realm. His pieces are continuously given out to special visitors to Tacoma, including international guests. In fact, he said, the Port of Tacoma regularly uses his pottery as gifts to corporate clients. The wife of a former Japanese prime minister even has one of Mathie’s pieces.
Many of his pieces in the show are red with bold and striking colors. He said the color red appeals to many people and brings out a variety of emotions. To create the intricate, leaf-like carvings on several of the pieces, Mathie used a small bamboo stick to create the etchings.
He said he gives personal attention to each piece, hand-brushing and sculpting each one. Before finishing a piece, he said, he gives each one a small breath of air, which finalizes the piece and gives each one a ‘puffed-out’ look. One of his pieces has seashell etchings on it, while one is shaped like a Grecian urn and another like a poppy seed.
He said his constant search of a perfect shape is what helps him continuously develop his craft.
Photo by Natasha Jaksich
FULL OF CREATIVITY. Artists Chuck Gumpert (left) and Christopher Mathie (right)
team up in the current show at Two Vaults Gallery, “Prevail. ”
Gestural love
Chuck Gumpert and Christopher Mathie
show at Two Vaults Gallery
Volcano Weekly - Tacoma
Aug 09, 2007 by Alec Clayton
Chuck Gumpert and Christopher Mathie are painters after my own heart. They
both love the act of painting ? the kind of painting that since the 1940s has
been called “gestural,” a word not recognized by dictionaries but
well loved by artists the world over.
Gumpert and Mathie share a studio, and whether or not they consciously influence one another, their mutual influence is evident in their work. So much so, in fact, that I thought all of the paintings at Two Vaults Gallery were by Gumpert. That misconception was not helped by the fact that the show was billed as paintings by Gumpert and raku pottery by Mathie.
Yes, there are pots by Mathie in the show. Nicely executed pots as a matter of fact. But a pot is to me as is a rose to Gertrude Stein, and if that doesn’t make sense, ask someone older and wiser.
By coincidence, the two artists came into the gallery while I was looking at their work, and Mathie set me straight when he realized I had mistaken his paintings for Gumpert’s.
Both
artists make abstract paintings with landscape elements and an
occasional bridge or building or figure showing up here and there — shadowy,
amorphous figures and hints of a horizon. Both layer large areas
of color on the canvas with a strong emphasis on mark-making.
Gumpert’s paintings are more atmospheric, and his colors
are kept to a limited range with browns and grays predominating.
The edges of his forms are soft, and he uses little or no line
and practically no dark and light contrasts. Most of his forms
are variations on squares and rectangles. His landscapes are
stormy; his figures moody. And when he does include figures they
are more intentional and more clearly defined than figures by
Mathie, whose figures seem more like abstract shapes that accidentally
look figurative.
Mathie’s paintings range from deliberate landscapes to completely nonobjective abstractions. His landscapes are influenced by J.M.W. Turner, the British master of stormy seas (Gumpert’s look more like James McNeil Whistler). His colors are brighter; his abstract shapes are more organic; and in some of his paintings, he uses a lot of big, sweeping lines.
One Gumpert painting I particularly like is “New Wind Blowing,” a figurative painting featuring a single silhouetted figure in brown standing almost dead-center in a field of atmospheric gray swirls. The figure is a pregnant a woman. She looks as if her shape has been ripped out of the gray canvas. The breakup of space, the use of transparencies, and the placement of the figure in this painting are all excellent.
“Accidental
Fugitive” is an abstract seascape in tones of gray with
very subtle hints of red, brown and green in two clumps of square
shapes. No specific details are discernable, but the feeling
is of a stormy sea with waves washing up against rocks and pilings.
I was told that Gumpert’s paintings in this show are among his latest. He brought out one older painting to show me, and I liked it better than most of the ones in the show, primarily because the colors were a little brighter and there was more contrast. I also preferred a lot of his paintings that are pictured on the gallery Web site. I can’t tell if his work has become more muted lately or if it looks brighter in reproduction. If it has become more muted, that is a direction he may not want to continue pursuing.
Mathie’s most outstanding work is a piece called “Monolith for Spring,” which, at 10 feet by 30 inches, stands floor to ceiling in the gallery. Heavy lines in large, swirling motions delineate an abstract figure with shapes that are not confined to the figure but bleed out into the background. The paint is thick, and the colors are raw.
Mathie and Gumpert are regulars at Two Vaults Gallery. I felt like this particular show did not necessarily show the best of their work. The good thing for collectors is that if you don’t see something you want in this show, the gallery can direct you to many other works by these prolific and talented artists.
[Two Vaults Gallery, through Sept. 20 Tuesday-Wednesday 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., Thursday-Saturday noon to 8 p.m., Sunday 2 to 7 p.m., 602 S. Fawcett, Tacoma, 253.759.6233, http://twovaults. com]
New exhibit offers a glimpse from above
By Jamie Forsythe
Tacoma Weekly
Published on: August 02, 2007
Tacoma's
Two Vaults Gallery
offers art enthusiasts another exhibit
of abstract paintings, "Inescapable,"
by artist Chuck Gumpert, who had
previously shown there in February.
Gallery Director Paula Tutmarc-
Johnson explained that Gumpert's
works were so well received by gallery-
goers she wanted to bring him
back again to showcase his new collection,
" Standing on the Shoulders
of Giants."
She noted that even individuals
who aren't fans of the abstract form
enjoy his work. She described it as
abstract that seems "alive and more in
the moment."
She compared it to jazz music.
"It's more like a Miles Davis piece of
music," she said. "He just connects
with people."
Even before viewers walk into the
gallery, the title piece catches their
eyes in the front window. The yellow,
blue and black are captivating as the
eye drops to· the bottom of the piece
where small white squares are scattered
about.
It takes a while for it to click —
Gumpert's paintings in the collection
offer a bird's-eye view into the' world
as if you were looking down through
the clouds or as the title suggests,
standing on the shoulders of a giant.
Gumpert said the title stemmed
from a quote attributed to Isaac Newton
— "If
have seen further it is by standing
on the shoulders of giants."
"I have also learned a lot from
all those who have come before me
in terms of art and abstract impressionism,"
he commented, noting that
the title pays tribute to his many
influences.
The squares that frequently appear
in works in this collection can be
interpreted differently depending
on the individual viewing the work.
Gumpert said .sometimes people see
them as buildings while others view
them as segments of a rural landscape ..
"Everyone who looks at them sees
something different," he remarked,
adding some don't even notice them.
"They just see the energy and the
action of the shapes and what they are
doing and the flow of the composition
and the colors.
"It does something different for
everyone and everyone can get something
out of it," he continued.
The concept of "Standing on the
Shoulders of Giants" is more apparent
in some pieces than others. For
instance, it comes across effortlessly
in "Market at Avignon," where multicolored
square forms seem to peek
through the white clouds.
A
really intense painting is
"Vitalize," where different shades of
blue draw the viewer's eye into the
painting and bursts of lighter colors
such as yellow and white pop through.
Gumpert's other career as a graphic
designer influences his work as
well, as seen in his use of intense
colors. "A lot of people see light coming
out of my paintings almost like
they are glowing, kind of like looking
at a computer screen," he explained.
" For me subconsciously, I'm trying to
achieve that same glow as when I do
my digital composition." "
He said he's always experimenting
with colors and coming up with different
combinations.
The entire "Standing on the
Shoulders of Giants" collection has
20 pieces, though only a handful are
on exhibit at TwoVaults. The remainder
of the paintings on display reflect
Gumpert's layered, abstract, non-subjective
style.
"I don't always strive to paint in
a series; most of the time I just paint
what comes to me," said Gumpert,
a native of California who currently
lives in Port Orchard.
"Inescapable" is on display through
the end of October at Two Vaults,
located at 602 S. Fawcett St. For more
information visit www.twovaults.com.
ARTIST OF THE MONTH - Chuck Gumpert
Chamber Current — April 2006
Joanne
Buselmeier - Tacoma Chamber of Commerce
The Chamber is proud to present its artist of
the month for April, Chuck Gumpert.
Gumpert said that often his paintings develop from
"digital studies" that he creates on the computer.
"Energy, light, movement and color all mingle
on the canvas into lush, vibrant atmospheres
and yummy translucencies," he said. "Each
new painting is a further exploration into my
imagination, my memory and my heart - the
journey continues to challenge and excite me."
Gumpert works out of a studio in a century-old farmhouse in Port Orchard -
a setting he said fosters inspiration, freedom and experimentation. Before
a five-year run as a graphic designer at the University of Washington, Gumpert
studied art, design, and computer graphics in California. He now lives in Gig
Harbor.
His work will be displayed in the ground floor showcase of the Commerce Building
at 11th Street & Pacific Avenue through April. A piece will also be shown
in the Chamber's lobby on the third floor of the Commerce Building. To see
Gumpert's work, visit www.chuckgumpert.com
Gumpert's work is also on display this month at Chamber member Two Vaults Gallery,
located at 602 South Fawcett in the Merlino Arts Center.
Recent
Advertising and Show Cards:
(NOTE: all Two Vaults cards and advertising designed
by yours truly)
Ad
appearing in Luxury Home Magazine, Oregon/SW Washington Edition
Feature
appearing in 2008 Portland Street of Dreams
.gif)
"Quantum
Physics"
Mixed Media — 60" x 60"
"Daybreak
in Songnisan"
Mixed Media — 30" x 40"
SOLD
Postcard
Postcard
Postcard
