Eustis Estate
Hands Up Don't Shoot!
Gints Grinbergs
Arms outstretched and hair on end, the girl cries out for mercy. Unfortunately several bullets have already found their mark! “Hands up, don’t shoot” is a chant protesters began using at rallies after a white police officer in Ferguson, Mo., killed unarmed 18-year-old Michael Brown Jr. in August 2014. The officer was not charged. This sculpture is made from welded steel and found objects: pitchfork for hair; steel wheel face with mouth agape; bluestone dress with four drill holes straight from the quarry; metal pipe arms raised overhead in surprise.
Biography
Lifelong packrat, Gints initially took up welding at Brookline High School to learn how to make sculpture out of all the great junk he had encountered! (Sat next to Conan O’Brien in Drawing 101, Class of 1981). Earned BFA and BA (Architecture) at Rhode Island School of Design 1986. Continued studies at School of the Museum of Fine Arts and Mass Art. Lives and Works in Dedham, Mass. with his wife, three daughters, and a seemingly endless supply of industrial scrap, found objects, and rusty junk. Inspired by mandalas, diatoms, subatomic particles, macro-pictures of flowers, Hubble photos, and Kundalini yoga.
Taught sculpture to other packrats at Stonybrook Fine Arts in Jamaica Plain, Ma. Has participated in countless group and solo shows throughout New England, including De Cordova Museum, Fuller Craft Museum, and Stonehill College as well as in New York, Chicago, Denver, Philadelphia, Toronto, Museum of Fine Arts, Riga, Latvia, and the Embassy of Latvia in Washington, D.C. Member of New England Sculptors Association. Included in private and corporate collections throughout North America. Completed a large-scale outdoor commission for the Southfield development in Weymouth, Mass. and Hub House in downtown Boston. Won a commission for Duxbury Library’s reading garden, installed Dec. 2016. Recently had an installation at the Heritage Museum in Sandwich, Mass. Solo show at DeMenilGallery at the Groton School 2019. Exhibits with Clark Gallery in Lincoln, Mass., Boston Art Inc., FlatrocksGallery in Gloucester, Mass., and the Sunne Savage Gallery in Winchester, Mass. Seen also at Liquid Art House and Marc Hall Objekt in Boston.