Marr Grounds b. 1930

  • Artist (Sculptor)

Born: Los Angeles, 1930.


Underwent active service in the U.S. Navy 1951-55 during the Korean War (Korean War veteran) and immediately thereafter.


Has held various teaching positions in the U.S.A. (1962-66), Ghana (1966-68) and Australia (1968-1986).1


Lives and works in Australia.



Grounds studied architecture at the University of California, Berkeley, graduating in 1965 and went on to do an M.A. in sculpture (1966). He exhibited in numerous group shows while in California. He came to Australia in 1968 and lived and worked in Sydney, lecturing at the Architecture Department, University of Sydney (1968-1986), and establishing the Sydney University Fine Arts Workshop (a.k.a. the Tin Sheds) with Donald Brook, of the Fine Arts Department, also at the University of Sydney. He received an M.Arch. From the University of Sydney in 1985.


He has been represented in a number of group shows in California since 1964, and Australia since 1968. From 1973 he exhibited in several of the Mildura Sculpture Triennials (1973, 1975, 1978), at Watters Gallery in Sydney (Objects, 1975) and the Ewing Gallery in Melbourne (Grids, 1975) and in the Biennale of Sydney (1976). He began producing video documentations of his sculptural installations and environmental art works in 1976. He then showed at the 7th Mildura Sculpture Triennial (1978) was included in the touring collection Videotapes from Australia (1979-81) and showed in the first Australian Perspecta 1981, plus later exhibitions.


He has travelled widely and has had residencies in Paris and Berlin. In 1977 he was Resident Artist at the Power Institute Studio, (Cite Internationale des Arts) Paris and at the Australia Council Studio, New York City. He made the film/video Austausch / Exchange with Egon Bunne (aka Llurex) while in Berlin in 1982


Grounds is primarily a sculptor whose work is particularly concerned with installation in the environment. In his installations he generally uses found natural and man-made objects to reflect and comment on our relationship with and impact upon the environment. He often works collaboratively with students and locals in the region where the installation is sited. Most of the works are documented, usually to film, which is then transferred to video for exhibition on video monitors when in the gallery. An unidentified curator at the MCA [possibly Sue Cramer] notes the “Influence of systems theory eco-systems [on his work, and that he] always went back to first principles, the environments. [He] worked intuitively & and then in retrospect saw [the] systems.”2


Many of Grounds’ early video works were originally shot on film since, at the time they were made, film provided better quality and durability. Also as many of the works are site based and in the outback, film was easier to deal with. Usually the original film material was transferred to video for editing and so that the works could be seen in a gallery situation. Films screenings involve a large-scale cinema situation while video on a monitor works better in the gallery, providing a more intimate feel.


In recent years he has lived on a property near Tanja on the south coast of NSW, and continues to make sculptural objects from found materials.



For a note on Grounds recent work, see:


Nigel Lendon, “When art gives architecture a good name.”


http://artwranglers.com.au/when-art-gives-architecture-a-good-name-1/



CV3






The artist is represented in the collection of the Quay Gallery, San Francisco, U.S.A.; Horison’s Gallery, Sausalito, U.S.A.; Flinders University. Adelaide; Mildura Arts Centre; Art Gallery of South Australia; Philip Morris Collection; National Gallery, Canberra; Ballarat Fine Art Gallery and the Art Gallery of New South Wales.




Compiled and partially written by Stephen Jones


Photographs courtesy the artist.


1CV is derived from several sources including the catalogue of the Seventh Sculpture Triennial, March 25 – May 28, 1978, Thomas McCullough; Australian Perspecta 1981, Bernice Murphy; and Griounds’ CV (2010).


2From a set of handwritten notes in the artist’s file at the MCA.


3Compiled from Seventh Sculpture Triennial, March 25 – May 28, (1978) catalogue; Perspecta 1981 catalogue and Grounds’ recent CV.

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