Jack Gron

ABOUT THE ARTIST

Jack Gron was born in the steel-producing town of Steubenville, Ohio in 1951. He received a BFA degree in Sculpture from the Columbus College of Art and Design in Columbus, Ohio in 1973. Jack attended Washington University in St. Louis where he earned an MFA degree in Sculpture in 1976. From 1976 – 1980, Jack operated a sculpture studio in Chicago where he fabricated and installed several large-scale public works while teaching part-time at community colleges in the area. In 1980, Jack moved to Cincinnati, Ohio and taught sculpture and ceramics at the University of Cincinnati for two years. After that he moved to Lexington, Kentucky where he taught sculpture for 20 years and served as Chairman of the Art Department for 7 years. In 2002, he accepted a position as Director of the School of Art at Northern Arizona University for three years. In 2005, jack was offered the position of Chairman of the Department of Art at Texas A&M University – Corpus Christi where he continues today.



All through his academic career, Jack has maintained a high profile as a working artist in developing a national and international reputation. He has served the greater community through his activities as workshop facilitator, exhibition adjudicator, artist in residencies and lecturer, conference panelist and member of several local, regional and national boards and commissions.

“My work has grown into personal statements, experiences and reflections of the times in which I live. These observations of my world and my history all contribute to the images in which I produce in metal. The choice of metal as my primary sculptural material goes back to my upbringing in the Greater Ohio Valley, where industry reined supreme in the 50’s, 60’s and 70’s. My family all worked in the various mills and plants and mines throughout that area of Steubenville, Ohio, After high school and in summers during my college years, I too worked on the blast furnaces producing iron that would be converted into machine parts and structural and sheet steel of all alloys and shapes.

With a keen interest in current events and the world in which I live, my sculptural compositions had become statements of my personal beliefs. These encompass politics, society, pop culture and organized religion to name a few. I found that satire and humor served as powerful tools to enable me to state my views manifest through industrial processes and materials.”