Bio
Chris Grosz (New Zealand 1947-) Bio
New Zealand Born Chris Grosz has worked as an illustrator graphic designer poster artist political cartoonist graphic novelist and a visual artist Chris’s diverse portfolio expresses the idea that creativity is spurred by continual practice demonstrating his belief that “too much drawing is never enough” Chris illustrations are a treasured feature of the Encounters column a collaboration with writer Shane Maloney for The Monthly magazine Mostly based on anecdotal whispers Encounters depicts iconic and historically significant Australians interacting in unlikely chance meetings Chris caricatures of well-known Australians have been drawn using watercolour and ink and in an expressively loose hatched linear style They have recently been brought to life on screen in Australian Encounters a series of three-minute animations for ABC1 The project seemed a logical progression for a body of work with such personality giving Chris the opportunity to revisit and add to initial drawings For the 10 episodes Chris contributed more than 1200 original drawings over 14 months which were then animated by Suitcase Murphy bros and XYZ studios The result is a series with a relatable human feel that returns to a hand-drawn era of animation which fits well with the show’s historical content For Chris the success of the work is that it “retains the feel of the original illustrations in The Monthly which is all I could have asked for” Chris refined creative process is due largely to his broad range of experiences in various creative and artistic disciplines Beginning his professional career as a freelance artist for a cluster of Melbourne’s advertising agencies Chris was able to later develop into a cartoonist and illustrator for The Age Nation Review The Bulletin and various airline magazines Through the 70s and 80s, Chris further expanded his practice while designing music gig posters at Australian Concert Entertainment – where he was able to create artwork for an incredible number of his musical heroes as well as experiment with a variety of styles and mediums For Chris designing Australian tour posters for artists such as Tom Waits Elvis Costello Bob Dylan and U2 contributed to his development as a graphic artist as he was “able to take a lot of creative risks”. Examples of Chris work in this field are included in Rockin’ Australia a three-volume collection of rock posters due for release in December 2013 Chris work spans decades of evolutions in style and technique using various media to communicate advertise and reflect an audience’s changing aesthetic values Though he has a wealth of experience in the graphic art and design industry Publishing a graphic novel in 2011 Kimble Bent: Malcontent his career still offers creative challenges Referring to the painstaking effort in executing his deceptively free-style illustrations Chris states “some of them just fall out of the end of my pen others go through hundreds of drafts” Whether his role is in designing illustrating or cartooning Chris career has been spent in creative pursuit of what he refers to as “Idea driven images” as they “are the ones that last”
