Vegas Magazine - Niche Media - There is a place beyond the crowds, beyond the ropes, where dreams are realized and success is celebrated. You are invited.
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PHOTOGRAPHY COURTESY OF RICHARD GRIECO ART FULL Richard Grieco's Void of Emotion filling a void ACTOR RICHARD GRIECO'S INTENSE VOID OF EMOTION PAINTING ANCHORS HIS FIRST SOLO ART SHOWING IN VEGAS. BY KRISTEN PETERSON A t a time when digital works, heady conceptual art, and large-scale installations are dotting galleries and museum exhibitions, an actor known mostly for his role as Dennis Booker on the original 21 Jump Street is going full-throttle, old-school Abstract Expressionism with a collection of drip paintings that will be rolled out this month at the Wyland Galleries inside Planet Hollywood. Amid his collection of paintings is the "Void" series, the product of a contained approach with paint rather than a Pollock-esque chaotic splat- tering. In Void of Emotion's square center (the starting point of the void), black, with its absence of color, represents apathy, from which emanate wispy blue shoots of strength, love, electricity, physicality, and emptiness. Grieco, who has been painting for 22 years but only recently made his works public—first via Facebook—is up-front about his approach to painting: tapping into "unbridled emotion" rather than a mathematical or intellectual approach. "I paint from the subject of the consciousness," he says, "not 62 VEGASMAGAZINE.COM from a literal point of view." The actor-turned-painter incorporates coins, bamboo, die-cast aluminum cars, and fabric (even a pair of jeans) into his artwork, at times mixing the elements directly with acrylic and oil paints before it hits the canvas. Fans are eating it up, some snatching up the color- ful paintings after only seeing them online. Grieco isn't the first actor to assay the visual arts: Sylvester Stallone, Jane Seymour, Anthony Hopkins, Martin Mull, and the late Dennis Hopper have all tried their hand at painting, with varying degrees of success. Grieco, who's also executive producer of Showtime's hit Gigolos, which is shot in Vegas, admits that he's a little nervous unleashing his abstract emotionalism in a solo show. "It's like going in there with a secret," he says. "But I'm painting from an emotional tangent, from where it's pure. So then there's no mistake. There's no right or wrong. It just is." Wyland Galleries, Planet Hollywood Resort & Casino. Richard Grieco will be on site November 2 and 3; planethollywood.com V