Wendi Gross (b. 1986, Baltimore, MD) brings together decades of creative practice in theatre, performance, and painting into a singular artistic voice. Raised in a household steeped in art—her father’s collection of Abstract Expressionist and Color Field works, and her mother’s practice as a painter—Gross developed an early awareness of color, material and form.
After earning a degree in theatre and costume design, Gross relocated to the Bay Area, where she began her life’s work through a fellowship at the Tony Award-winning Berkeley Repertory Theatre. Over many years she has written, directed, produced and performed in critically acclaimed, award-winning shows. Her stage work—physical theatre, clown, and character-driven rich productions—strengthened her sense of gesture, rhythm, presence, and visual storytelling - which she has transitioned into her paintings.
Her lifelong love of traveling—from Bali and Thailand through Morocco, Turkey and beyond has deepened her visual lexicon, exposing her to worldwide traditions of ritual, abstraction, and formal expression. Inspired by these immersive experiences, Gross turned her attention to the canvas, allowing pigment, surface, and color to perform. Her paintings fuse this performative sensibility with Color Field/Abstract Expressionist lineage: layers of saturated hue, explosive gesture, and activated surface where canvas and pigment merge, echoing the intent of early Color Field and Abstract Expressionist painters.
Gross’s practice evokes the lineage of artists such as Paul Jenkins, Norman Lewis, Morris Louis, Sam Gilliam, Helen Frankenthaler and Joan Mitchell, while simultaneously aligning with a recent resurgence of interest in the work of Alice Baber and Lynne Drexler. Her work invites viewers into immersive fields of color: elemental yet emotionally charged.
Today, Gross continues to make bold, vibrant paintings that draw on her lifelong creative practice and her roots in performance art—in which color becomes movement, surface becomes stage, and abstraction becomes embodiment.
Wendi Gross (b. 1986, Baltimore, MD) brings together decades of creative practice in theatre, performance, and painting into a singular artistic voice. Raised in a household steeped in art—her father’s collection of Abstract Expressionist and Color Field works, and her mother’s practice as a painter—Gross developed an early awareness of color, material, and form.
NYC, Photo by Nikki Ishmael
After earning a degree in theatre and costume design, Gross relocated to the Bay Area, where she began her life’s work starting with a fellowship at the Tony Award-winning Berkeley Repertory Theatre. Over many years she has written, directed, produced and performed in critically acclaimed, award-winning shows. Her stage work—physical theatre, clown, and character-driven, rich productions—strengthened her sense of gesture, rhythm, presence, and visual storytelling, which she has transitioned into her paintings.
Her lifelong love of traveling—from Bali and Thailand through Morocco, Turkey and beyond has deepened her visual lexicon, exposing her to worldwide traditions of ritual, abstraction, and formal expression. Inspired by these immersive experiences, Gross turned her attention to the canvas, allowing pigment, surface, and color to perform. Her paintings fuse this performative sensibility with Color Field/Abstract Expressionist: layers of saturated hue, explosive gesture, and activated surface where canvas and pigment merge, echoing the intent of early Color Field and Abstract Expressionist painters.
Gross’s practice evokes the lineage of artists such as Paul Jenkins, Norman Lewis, Morris Louis, Sam Gilliam, Helen Frankenthaler and Joan Mitchell, while simultaneously aligning with a recent resurgence of interest in the work of Alice Baber and Lynne Drexler. Her work invites viewers into immersive fields of color: elemental yet emotionally charged.
Today, Gross continues to make bold, vibrant paintings that draw on her lifelong creative practice and her roots in performance art—in which color becomes movement, surface becomes stage, and abstraction becomes embodiment.