Using a simple yet vibrant palette of colors, Kondos captures and entrances his viewer. This simplicity of theme reflected in his technique allows us to place ourselves within the space and composition of the painting. Viewing a Kondos landscape is like standing alone in nature, letting you bask in the beauty and inherent loneliness of the land. Kondos describes his paintings as possessing a sense of quietness and cleanliness while maintaining a necessary lonely quality: “Less is more…and what is left out makes the picture more understandable.”

Like the many trees depicted in his staggeringly beautiful landscapes, Kondos’ roots in northern California are strong. Raised by Greek immigrant parents in Sacramento, Kondos went on to study at Sacramento City College and receive his Bachelor's and Master's Degrees in Art at the California State University at Sacramento. A lifelong teacher, Kondos spent 27 years at Sacramento City College where he mentored and taught young artists, and was the founder and director of the campus gallery, which was later named in his honor. Together with fellow artist and friend, Wayne Thiebaud, Kondos founded the Artists Cooperative Gallery (now the Artists Contemporary Gallery), one of the earliest showcases for aspiring artists in northern California.

Gregory Kondos’ lifelong achievements place him in the great tradition of American landscape painters such as Albert Bierstadt, Edward Hopper and Georgia O’Keefe. He has won numerous prizes and awards including the Winter Invitationals at the California Palace of the Legion of Honor in San Francisco, a lifetime achievement award from International Bienniale in Florence, Italy, and in 1998 was featured in a PBS documentary called "A Passion for the Land. Collections of Kondos’ work are displayed in museums around the world including the Ningbo Museum in Ningbo China, Phoenix Art Museum, Yosemite Museum, and the Reives Arches Museum in France. Kondos was also recently elected to the National Academy of Design in New York.

By Laila Brenner

Select Museum Collections

•Hirshhorn Museum, Washington, D.C.
•Bakersfield Museum of Art, CA
•Tucson Museum of Art, AZ
•Phoenix Art Museum, AZ
•Oakland Museum, CA
•Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.
•Crocker Art Museum, Sacramento, CA
•Santa Barbara Museum of Art, CA
•Monterey Peninsula Art Museum, Belmont, CA
•Fresno Art Museum, CA
•Saint Mary’s College of California, Moraga, CA
•Yosemite Museum, CA
•Sacramento City College, CA
•Reives Arches Museum, France

Selected Collections

•Sacramento Airport, Sacramento, CA
•84th San Francisco Art Institute Annual Exhibition, San Francisco, CA
•The West - 80 Contemporaries, Tucson, AZ
•A Sense of Place: The Artist and the American Landscape, Gainesville, FL
•Invitational Exhibition of Painting and Sculpture, American Academy of Arts and Letters, New York, NY
•Land Space and Light, Monterey Museum of Art, Monterey, CA

Select Exhibition History & Awards

2009 - Allan Stone Gallery, “Bay Area to New York”, New York Group Exhibition.
2009 - Historic Trading Posts of the West, Mark Sublette Medicine Man Gallery, Tucson, AZ
2007 - Golden Bear Artist of the Year Award, CA Arts Council, State of California
2007 - Arizona: A Millennium of Arizona Art, Mark Sublette Medicine Man Gallery, Tucson, AZ
2006 - Prize Award, National Academy of Design in New York
1998 - Featured in a PBS Special Documentary, A Passion for the Land. Commissioned for a mural in Sacramento International Airport, CA.
1995 - Elected National Academy of Design, New York City.
1994 - Distinguished Service Award, California State University or Sacramento, CA.
1990 - Artist in residence, Yosemite National Park.
1969 - Solo show, Palace of the Legion of Honor, Fine Art Museums of San Francisco, CA.

Education

1941 - Sacramento Junior College, CA
1946 - Art Center College of Design, Los Angeles, CA California State Univerisity, Sacramento, CA - Masters

Publications

“Gregory Kondos: a Retrospective” by Barbara Kennedy Gibbs, 1993.