Fullerton College Centennial

FULLERTON COLLEGE CENTENNIAL

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GUEST ARTISTS/SPEAKERS: GRONK (aka Glugio Nicandro)

GRONK (aka Glugio Nicandro)

The artist known as Gronk was born in 1957 in East Los Angeles. In the 1970s, he and some artist friends founded a creative collective named ASCO (Spanish for “nausea,” the title of a book by French existentialist writer Jean-Paul Sartre). Inspired by the the anti-war and Chicano Walk-Out movements of Los Angeles schools, Gronk and friends took to the streets, doing performance art and making films.

In 1972, Gronk and fellow artists spray-painted their names on a footbridge of the Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA) as a statement against the museum’s underrepresentation of Latino art. Almost forty years later, ASCO (including Gronk) was invited to exhibit its work at LACMA in an exhibit titled “ASCO: Elite of the Obscure, a Retrospective, 1972-1987.”

Gronk was the 2011 Artist in Residence at Fullerton College. Gronk’s Fullerton College Exhibit “Gronk Un-Secret” was described by OC Weekly art critic Dave Barton as “like taking a tour through the abstract personal imaginings of a friend generous enough to let you see the world from his point of view.”

In addition to the art show, Gronk also contributed the first centennial-commissioned mural to the Fullerton College ethnic studies building. The spontaneous, playful style provides a welcome balance to the familiar Spanish Revival Architectore of the building, showing that Fullerton College is becoming a place where past and present interact in meaningful ways.

"The same museum the collective defaced because its doors weren’t open to artists of their kind — Mexican-American, working class and poor, highly irreverent and politicized — is not just finally welcoming them inside but rolling out a red carpet for the occasion.”
Randy Kennedy, The New York Times

“Every year, the artist-in-residence has a show of their work at our art gallery, and every two years, we do an exhibit of our growing permanent collection. The program is about people who have a heart for students coming here to talk about their craft and their career, with the hope of helping students figure out how to navigate the strange thing called a life in the arts."
Bob Jensen, Dean of Fine Arts, Fullerton College

Date of Birth:

1957

Dates at Fullerton College:

Artist-in Residence 2011

Specialty:

Art

Titles/Awards:

Gronk’s work has been shown at:

  • The Corcoran Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C.
  • The San Francisco Museum of Modern Art
  • The National Hispanic Cultural Center in Albuquerque, New Mexico
  • The Los Angeles County Museum of Art
  • The Mexican Museum in San Francisco
  • The de Young Museum in San Francisco
  • The San Jose Museum of Art in San Jose
  1. Barton, Dave. “Gronk-o-Rama at Fullerton College.” OC Weekly. 7 April 2011. Online:
    http://www.ocweekly.com/2011-04-07/culture/gronk-fullerton-college/
  2. “ASCO: Elite of the Obscure.” www.lacma.org. Los Angeles County Museum of Art. 4 September 2011.
  3. Jensen, Bob. Personal Interview. 4 April 2012.
  4. “Chicano Pioneers.” New York Times. 35 August 2011.
  5. Photo Citation: Gonzalez, Ron. “Unveiling of Gronk’s Art at Fullerton College.” Orange County Register. 10 October, 2011.
    http://oclatinolink.ocregister.com/2011/10/10/pictures-unveiling-of-gronks-art-at-fullerton-college/