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Andrew Krino • Profile
With a Bachelor of Fine Arts from Grand Valley State University, extensive study abroad, and years of private art classes throughout his youth, Andy Krino has actualized the childhood vision that art would become a permanent fixture in his life. During his early years at Grand Valley State University, he noticed a strong affinity toward the impressionist and post-impressionist artists. Only recently has he been able to identify American landscape artists George Inness and Wolf Kahn as being among the most significant influences of his life and art.
Achieving a delicate balance of abstraction and representation, Krino offers a unique interpretation of the Midwest landscape. The choice of oil pastel as a medium gives him the opportunity to explore a wide variety of techniques in line and color. Krino varies the speed of his thin, energetic lines, manipulating texture and suggesting movement. Potentially incompatible tones daringly arranged across the page find harmony in the presence of a cleverly placed mediating base color peaking through the many rich layers. This common denominator, creating cohesion and congruence, demonstrates Krino's solid understanding of tonal compatibility. He utilizes this tool of color contrast again as he relies on it rather than perspective to create the illusion of depth and foreground. Toying with the possibility of bringing believability to improbable colors, shapes, and perspectives, he challenges the viewer to see not only a simple landscape represented literally, but to accept the slightly inflected version of reality: periwinkle trees, square piles of leaves, vertical streams. If an image appears to be set off balance by the volume of one item monopolizing the page, Krino restores balance through the use of empty space, complimentary colors, modified shapes and adjusted sizes. Despite these complexities, however, Krino manages to maintain a naivete through deliberately simple and childlike techniques—a naivete so overt, its intent is easily overlooked by the hasty eye.
Andy Krino finds comfort and peace in solitude. The single leaf, the lone tree, and other objects from nature Krino includes in his pieces, evoke the feeling of peaceful loneliness so often felt while experiencing the Midwest landscape first hand. He successfully recreates the complex composition of the earth through the rich layering of color and line. In Krino's own words: "My work is a documentation of the rural Midwest. It makes an example of the impression of man's labor on the earth and how nature finds balance in this environment. It is a testimony of age and time and solitude".
Andrew Krino • Statement
I want to look into our natural environs with the eyes of Thoreau. Sometimes I commit these places to memory or page and eventually to paper or canvas. With crayons and tools and brushes I make impressions of our Midwestern landscape, but more I intend to narrate a moment of peaceful loneliness, solitude. It’s an attempt to bring it all with me into my home, my family, and into my job. There’s rest out there and we need it. A big old tree, a fallow field, an empty homestead, and an orange sky is like a punch to the heart.
Andrew Krino • Biography
EDUCATION
1997
Bachelor of Fine Arts in Art and Design, Grand Valley State University, Allendale, Michigan
1996
Foreign Exchange Program studying Painting, Printmaking, Drawing, and British Culture, Kingston University, London, England
1995
Grand Valley State University, Art in France Summer Program studying Painting, Drawing, and Art History
SELECTED EXHIBITIONS
2007
LaFontsee Galleries, "2007-c," Grand Rapids, MI
2005
LaFontsee Galleries, "ONE," Grand Rapids, MI
2004
Urban Institute for Contemporary Arts, "Live Coverage," Art Auction, Grand Rapids, Michigan
2003
Urban Institute for Contemporary Arts, “Live Coverage,” Art Auction, Grand Rapids, Michigan
LaFontsee Galleries, "Holiday Muse," Group Exhibition, Grand Rapids, Michigan
2002
LaFontsee Galleries, "Between Colors," Three-Person Exhibition, Grand Rapids, Michigan
2001
Urban Institute for Contemporary Arts, "Live Coverage," Art Auction, Grand Rapids, Michigan
LaFontsee Galleries, "Winter Presents," Group Exhibition, Grand Rapids, Michigan
2000
Grand Rapids Art Museum, "Festival of the Arts," Grand Rapids, Michigan
1999
LaFontsee Galleries, "Winter Presents," Group Exhibition, Grand Rapids, Michigan
1997
Grand Valley State University, Bachelor of Fine Arts Exhibition, Allendale, Michigan
Grand Rapids Art Museum, "Festival Visual Art Competition," Grand Rapids, Michigan; received Purchase Award
1996
Holland Area Arts Council, "Holland Area Arts Council Juried Show," Holland, Michigan
1995
Grand Valley State University, Student Exhibition, Allendale, Michigan; received 2nd Place Award
1995
Bagel-Haul Deli, Solo Exhibition, Haslett, Michigan
HONORS AND AWARDS
1997
Purchase Award, "Festival Visual Art Competition," Grand Rapids Art Museum, Grand Rapids, Michigan
1996
Calder Fine Arts Competitive Art Scholarship
1995
2nd Place Award, "Grand Valley State University Student Exhibition," Allendale, Michigan
1993
Grand Valley State University Competitive Portfolio Scholarship
SELECTED COLLECTIONS
- City of Grand Rapids, Michigan
- Blodgett/Butterworth Healthcare Foundation
Grand Rapids, Michigan
- The Frey Foundation, Grand Rapids, Michigan
- Grand Valley State University, Allendale, Michigan
- URS Corp., Grand Rapids, Michigan
- Varnum Riddering Schmidt & Howlett LLP
Grand Rapids, Michigan
- Warner Norcross & Judd LLP, Grand Rapids, Michigan
- Williamston Public Schools, Williamston, Michigan
