Last night, Peter Gronquist debuted his solo show, “Woulda, Coulda, Shoulda,” at Shooting Gallery. Confronting the viewer with bold, dichotomous images, Gronquist’s paintings and sculptures engage with various taboos. Perhaps the most striking pieces in his new body of work are his taxidermy sculptures. The walls of the gallery were lined with huge heads of bison, goats and other species, their horns replaced with gilded weaponry and often delicately wrapped in floral ornamentation. Gronquist’s juxtaposition of death, nature and destruction calls forth many pertinent questions about humans’ relationship to the environment; the animal heads seems so real, yet so artificial and manipulated. Take a look at some photos from the opening reception.
Peter Gronquist