Mark Grotjahn: A Visionary of Abstract Expression

Mark Grotjahn, born in 1968 in Pasadena, California, is an influential American artist known for his abstract and geometric paintings. After completing a BFA at the University of Colorado and an MFA at the University of California, Berkeley, Grotjahn moved to Los Angeles in 1996. He co-founded a gallery before pursuing a full-time artistic career. His style merges abstraction with figuration, blending geometric precision with gestural spontaneity, influenced by modernist movements such as those pioneered by Mondrian and Malevich. 

Biography

Mark Grotjahn (born 1968) is an American artist recognized for his abstract and geometric paintings characterized by bold compositions. He currently lives and works in Los Angeles.
Born in Pasadena, Grotjahn spent most of his formative years in the Bay Area. His father, Michael, was a psychiatrist who emigrated from Berlin, Germany, in 1936, and his paternal grandfather is Martin Grotjahn. Grotjahn completed his BFA at the University of Colorado, Boulder, and went on to receive his MFA from the University of California, Berkeley. In 1995, he participated in the artist residency program at the Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture in Madison, Maine. After relocating to Los Angeles in 1996, Grotjahn co-founded the gallery Room 702 in Hollywood with fellow artist Brent Petersen. Although the gallery attracted attention, including an offer to move into the 6150 complex on Wilshire Boulevard—home to several notable galleries—it closed within two years. Following this, Grotjahn decided to pursue a full-time career as an artist.

Style, Movement, and Subjects

Famous Works

In the mid-1990s, Mark Grotjahn began creating intricate colored pencil drawings, followed by oil paintings, that explored the concept of perspective, focusing on dual and multiple vanishing points. His painting approach initially grew out of his interest in conceptual sign-making. He would meticulously recreate unusual graphics and phrases from local storefronts in Los Angeles, and in return for these hand-drawn replicas, he would trade them with shop owners in exchange for the original signs.

Later, Grotjahn expanded his work with colored pencils to develop what he called "perspective drawings" and eventually transitioned these ideas into perspectival paintings. His multi-colored drawings exhibit a systematic and disciplined method, yet they also allow for moments of intuition and spontaneity. Grotjahn would begin by sketching the triangular radii in black pencil. For each piece in this series, he selected a set of colored pencils, ensuring the chosen hues matched in value and intensity. He would place these pencils beside him and, without planning, pick one at random to fill in a single pre-segmented section.

Since 1997, Grotjahn has explored radiant patterns in his paintings and drawings, which culminated in his famous Butterfly series. Drawing from Renaissance techniques of perspective, he used multiple vanishing points to create butterfly-shaped patterns that give the impression of depth and motion. While these works might appear rigid and formal at first glance, they consist of parallel lines executed in thick oil paint, creating an illusion of perspective that gives the forms a dynamic, expanding effect. The lines are intentionally placed so that they rarely align perfectly with the canvas edges.

In 2008, after a skiing accident that resulted in a torn rotator cuff and a broken shoulder, Grotjahn ceased working on the Butterfly series. Limited to only a couple of hours of painting at a time, he sought less physically demanding techniques. This led to his Face series, large vertical paintings based on simple geometric structures like eyes, noses, and mouths. Using cardboard sheets primed and mounted on linen, Grotjahn layered thick oil paint with brushes and palette knives, creating textured, almost sculptural surfaces.

Grotjahn also expanded his artistic vision into three dimensions with his mask sculptures. These pieces, cast in bronze from spontaneous cardboard assemblages, often featured finger-painted surfaces. Many of these masks are displayed on pedestals, while some are mounted on walls, directly referencing his painting process.

Grotjahn currently works out of his studio in Little Armenia, Los Angeles. In 2011-12, he served as a Visiting Scholar at the California College of the Arts in San Francisco. In 2014, he became an artist trustee on the board of the Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles.

Exhibitions and the Art Market

Mark Grotjahn has held solo exhibitions at notable venues including the UCLA Hammer Museum in Los Angeles (2005), the Whitney Museum of American Art in New York (2006), and the Portland Art Museum in Oregon. His works have also been featured in numerous group exhibitions at prestigious galleries and museums such as the Museum of Contemporary Art in Chicago, P.S.1 Contemporary Art Center in New York, Museum am Ostwall in Dortmund, Neuer Aachener Kunstverein in Germany, and the Royal Academy in London. He was part of the 54th Carnegie International in 2004 and the Whitney Biennial in 2006.

Collections
Grotjahn’s works are held in prominent collections including:

• Broad Art Foundation, Santa Monica, CA
• Hammer Museum, Los Angeles, CA
• Carnegie Museum of Art, Pittsburgh, PA
• Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH
• Des Moines Art Center, Des Moines
• Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles, CA
• Museum of Modern Art, New York, NY
• Walker Art Center, Minneapolis, MN
• Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Los Angeles, CA
• Rubell Family Collection, Miami, FL
• San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, San Francisco
• Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam
• Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, NY

Recognition
Grotjahn received the Penny McCall Foundation Award in 2003 and, in 2011, was honored with amfAR’s Award of Excellence for Artistic Contributions to the Fight Against AIDS. His first solo shows with Blum & Poe took place in 1998 and 2000, though he sold only one piece from the second show. Over the years, demand for his work has risen significantly, with prices typically reaching between $500,000 and $800,000. In 2010, his painting Untitled (Lavender Butterfly Jacaranda over Green) (2004) sold for $1.5 million at Christie’s New York, exceeding the presale estimate of $500,000–$700,000. In May 2015, Untitled (Into and Behind the Green Eyes of the Tiger Monkey Face 43.18) (2011) sold for $6.5 million at Sotheby’s New York, far surpassing the high estimate of $3 million. On May 17, 2017, Grotjahn set a new auction record when Untitled (S III Released to France Face 43.14) was sold for $16.8 million.

Grotjahn is represented by several major galleries, including Anton Kern Gallery in New York, Gagosian Gallery in London, Blum and Poe in Los Angeles, Shane Campbell Gallery in Chicago, and Kaikai Kiki Gallery in Tokyo.

Royalties Controversy
In 2011, Mark Grotjahn filed a lawsuit against Dean Valentine, a trustee of the Museum of Contemporary Art (MOCA) and one of his early collectors, to recover a 5% royalty on the resale of three of his artworks. The largest sale in question occurred in 2008 at Phillips de Pury & Company in New York, where Valentine sold Untitled (Blue Face Grotjahn) (2005) for $1,217,000, including the premium. Grotjahn estimated that Valentine had earned around $3 million from the resale of the three works. After more than a year of legal proceedings and court-ordered mediation, the dispute was settled in 2012 in accordance with the California Resale Royalty Act. Valentine agreed to pay Grotjahn a total of $153,255, which included the 5% royalty (plus interest) on a painting and drawing Valentine had resold, amounting to $68,255, along with an additional $85,000 to cover Grotjahn's legal fees.

Influence on Other Artists

Mark Grotjahn is frequently seen as part of a group of contemporary artists revisiting and reinterpreting the principles of late Modernism. He is often mentioned alongside painters such as Tomma Abts, Wade Guyton, Eileen Quinlan, Sergei Jensen, and Cheyney Thompson for their shared engagement with this art historical period.