Peter Gric

Peter Gric (born 1968 in Brno) is a painter, draughtsman and illustrator born in what was then Czechoslovakia and based in Austria since his teenage years. His work combines futuristic landscapes and architecture, biomechanical surrealism and fantastic realism, and he is a member of the art groups Libellule and Labyrinthe.

In 1980 his family left for Austria through Hungary and Yugoslavia, under the pretext of a holiday trip. After a year in Reichenau an der Rax they settled in Linz, where he studied graphic design. In 1988 he moved to Vienna to study under Arik Brauer at the Academy of Fine Arts, graduating with a Master of Fine Arts in 1993. He was already exhibiting and selling work during his studies. In 1996 he presented a project on the relationship between painting and computer graphics, and from 2011 to 2015 he taught at the Academy.

Gric works irregularly, often experimenting for long periods before a new piece emerges. He uses oil and acrylic paint and airbrushes, designs many compositions in graphic software and models the most complex ones in 3D, although painting remains his main medium. His influences range from science fiction illustration and Star Wars to surrealists such as Dalí, de Chirico and Ernst, and above all his father's surrealist paintings. He worked on stage design for Hamlet in Rock and on concept design for Guillermo del Toro's At the Mountains of Madness. His paintings are held in public and private collections in Austria, Germany, the Netherlands and Australia.