Dennis Grady, March 1996

“Being Here Now: At Play In The Fields of Totalitarian Capitalism,”

For Immediate Release:

20 March, 1996;

I dont know what youve all become accustomed to, reading these press-releases, month after month, but this time, as well as an announcement of an exciting up-and-coming Upper Valley Art Event, you will also be presented with entertainment—a real-life Horatio Alger Success Story.

Our protagonist is one Dennis Grady, familiar to any of you who habituate the galleries of the Vermont Historical Society in Montpelier, the Chandler in Randolph, or the Brattleboro Museum all of which August Cultural Institutions have presented his Installations. But there was a time (can you imagine it) when our Vital American Artist was but a lad, working in the Mills and Marts of Rhode Island; scraping a meager sustenance from Cruel Employers in order to support his Invalid Mother and his little Curly Blond Haired Sister, left blind from a tragic rubber vulcanization experiment. But it was there, behind the soiled Plexiglas of a cashiers booth in a Providence Liquor Store, that dreams of “Thoughts on Projection and Time as Deception” were dreamed. And there, behind a high-pressure steam nozzle at an All-Night i-95 Truck Wash, that formulas for “Photography and Æsthetic Logic” were formulated. Perhaps this “Dog Eat Dog” world contributed to his growth in an Æsthetic Vein. He believes the only real disadvantage to this kind of childhood has been his lifelong caffeine addiction.

Fortune and Marriage conspired to bring our boy to the Green Hills of South Pomfret, Vt. and here his Essays, Awards and Exhibitions flourished. As well as the Vermont venues given above he has shown at the University of Ohio at Athens, the Beelke Gallery, Purdue University, and the Photographic Resource Center in Boston as well as galleries from Toronto to Toledo and San Francisco to risd. He is, as you can no doubt appreciate from my prose, a Thinker, with a capital “T,” floss your ears before you become his spectator.

His project for the Main Street Museum is not (as you have come to expect havent you?) created especially for our galleries here, but was conceived for the Gallery of the University of Ohio and has been shipped to us directly from that Venerable Institution for the opening of our newly enlarged and refinished first floor store-front Exhibition Space.

(Somewhat) Refurbished Gallery Space

Special “French Doors” have been installed here in honor of our brand new, not terribly high pressure, Fund Raising and Membership Drive. We are not-quite-sure-but our appearance isnt getting a wee too gentrified for our corner of this city; yet we will not cease to be Scruffy. You will find no Beneton™ or Warner Bros. Stores™ in the Old Lenas Lunch.

The title of Mr. Gradys presentation is: “Being Here Now: At Play In The Fields of Totalitarian Capitalism,” and contains: Book Pages, a Video, an Airplane, and Mannequin Heads, all of which must be seen to be believed. The “Being Here Now” soundtrack will be on sale at our astounding Gift Shoppe and is not available in stores. The Wall of Consciousness comes to the Junction. We think that this “concept based,” “Expanding Our Minds” style will give you all something to think about; something that is oftimes lacking in our “rurally urban” world. And, if we do say so, will fit right in with the record stores, bakeries, and book stores that are proliferating in our little town, have you seen the Gateway to Vermont lately?

When asked recently why he must create art, Mr. Grady replied, “Reality; Apprehension; Pre-Hension;” and when pressed for further meaning blurted out, “kill it before it kills you.” We let this end our interview and our press-release.

Dennis Grady

The Twenty-Ninth of March, thru the Tenth of May, 1996. Fridays and Saturdays from Noon til Five, p.m. with an Opening Reception Sunday, the Thirty-First of March, 1996 from Four p.m. til Seven p.m.