Walter Gurbo is probably best known for his 'Drawing Room' Series appearing for 12 years on the back cover of The Village Voice as well as The Chicago Reader. He also contributed hundreds of drawings to the New York Times and many magazines. 

     And now, Upstairs Artspace gallery in Tryon, NC is pleased to welcome painter, sculptor, illustrator, muralist, set designer, set-painter and filmmaker, Walter Gurbo for his solo show, Multi-Dimensional Future, featuring recent works. The show opens September 28 with a reception from 2-4 pm, and runs through November 21.

     Gurbo is originally from New York City. He is a graduate of The High School of Art & Design and Pratt Institute. He taught at the School of Visual Arts for many years. His painting and graphic work has been on display in many group shows as well as several one-man shows in NYC, Japan and in Upstate New York. Gurbo has an extensive theater background with the Theater for the New City, designing and painting sets and murals for over 30 years.

     “All my work, I believe, is affirming our interconnection with nature and each other,” Gurbo says. “The idea of 'Multi-Dimensional Future' is meant to convey my belief that, as a species, we are presently capable of seeing on many levels of awareness. My wish is that others will enjoy the fun of discovery as much as I do in my own work.”

     The exhibition is curated by Sarah Schroth, director emerita, Nasher Museum of Art at Duke University, co-chair of Upstairs’ exhibitions committee and member of the board.

     In deciding which pieces to use for the show, Schroth noted that Gurbo has an inventive mind and creative energy unlike any she has experienced in her 30-plus year career in the art world.

     “He’s best known for his quirky surrealist drawings which appeared on the back cover of The Village Voice from 1977-1989. His recent move to Asheville has yielded countless lyrical abstract paintings, some using the palette of his new environment, Carolina blue skies and red clay earth,” Schroth adds. 

     “At the same time, he is making dense quasi-figural multimedia drawings which he mounts on cardboard or wood bound together – his “books” as he calls them – and intricate twisted vine sculptures he installs on the exterior of his studio-home,” Schroth says, adding that gallery audiences will find the these new works “endlessly fascinating.”