JOHN GRECO

ABOUT JOHN GRECO

John Greco’s work is rooted in process as a form of inquiry, an ongoing balance between intuition and intention. From early in his career, he has approached art making as a self-reflective practice that relies on accessing the unconscious as much as technical knowledge.

In 1977, as a right-handed artist, Greco began drawing and painting with his left hand in order to bypass habitual, analytical thinking and allow primary forms and archetypal imagery to emerge more freely. The right hand followed as a partner, organizing, refining, and giving structure to what intuition first revealed. When this approach was later applied to printmaking, technical mastery became a means of support rather than control. The discipline of the medium provided a framework within which uncertainty, risk, and discovery could exist.

This duality between freedom and restraint, impulse and refinement, has remained central to Greco’s practice. Printmaking, with its layered processes and incremental transformations, became his primary medium because it embodies this tension. Images are not fully known at the outset. They evolve through time, repetition, and response to material conditions. The final work often emerges through adaptation rather than execution, shaped by circumstance and open to multiple interpretations.

This same philosophy informs how Greco works with others. Through Josephine Press and decades of teaching, collaboration, and publishing, he has cultivated a studio environment that values openness, experimentation, and shared inquiry. Artists entering the studio are encouraged to remain flexible, to question initial assumptions, and to allow the process itself to influence the outcome. Technique is treated not as an endpoint, but as a tool that enables deeper exploration.

For Greco, the studio is not only a place of production, but a community built on trust in process, respect for material, and a collective willingness to embrace the unknown.

RESUME

John Greco began his art training in the early 1970s, studying printmaking with Glen Brunken, Will Petersen, and Dan Rohn. He earned a Bachelor of Fine Arts from Slippery Rock University and a Master of Fine Arts in Printmaking from Kent State University.

In 1984, Greco founded Josephine Press in Santa Monica as a professional printmaking studio dedicated to artistic experimentation and the publication of fine art editions. Five years later, he opened Christopher John Gallery, creating a complementary exhibition space focused on innovative artists and printmakers.

Over the course of his career, Greco has collaborated with more than 500 artists worldwide and has worked as a master printer and publisher on numerous editions and folios. Collaborators include John Cage, Raymond Pettibon, Michael McMillen, Edgar Heap of Birds, Meg Cranston, Muramasa Kudo, Peter Milton, Martin Mull, and Stas Orlovski, among many others.

Greco has exhibited extensively in museums and galleries throughout the United States, Europe, and Japan, and his work is represented in major public and private collections. His professional activities also include publications, public lectures, juried exhibitions, and decades of service within the printmaking community.

He has taught printmaking, drawing, and photography at institutions including Kent State University, Slippery Rock University, the University of Southern California, and the American College for the Applied Arts. He currently teaches printmaking and drawing at Santa Monica College.

Selected exhibitions, publications, teaching experience, and professional activities are detailed in the full CV.