Biography of Artist Navarro Pickens Greg was born in Houston, Texas in 1962, but spent 2nd through 12th grades living in Morristown, New Jersey. During High School, he attended weekly drawing classes offered at The Joe Kubert School of Cartooning as well as studied illustration at Morris County Vocational School his senior year. He received a Bachelor’s degree in drawing from Kutztown University, Pa. in 1984 and a master’s degree in painting from the University of Texas, San Antonio in 1988. He has studied art abroad in Brazil, England, Italy and Mexico and holds a single subject secondary teaching credential in art. Teaching positions include Westerly School, Orange County High School for the Arts and South East High School in South Gate, CA. Higher education positions include Fullerton College, Irvine Valley College and art education instructor for Cal State University Long Beach for the past 13 years. Professional work experiences include the Social and Public Art Resource Center in Venice, CA where he was production supervisor for Judy Baca’s World Wall mural project, which he installed in Finland and Gorky Park, U.S.S.R. in 1991. He also oversaw the restoration of the quarter-mile Great Wall of Los Angeles mural while at SPARC. He is the co-founder of two Long Beach non-profit arts agencies – Artists Reaching Kids (ARK) and The Art Exchange where he is currently the Vice-Chair. Public artworks include more than 150 murals and several large-scale sculptures. He was commissioned to create a mural for Disney’s unveiling of the “World of Color” show, which has been reproduced for sale at Disneyland. Greg has designed kids art activities for the Nickelodeon Kids Choice Awards after-party for the past 12 years as well as provided art workshops and mural programs to more than 40 public schools in Long Beach. There have been several gallery exhibitions of his studio work through out his career, however he had his first one-man show at the EXPO Art Center in Long Beach in 2012 opening on his 50th birthday. He has been honored with many acknowledgements and awards including a State Senatorial Resolution, 2 Distinguished Artist of the Year Awards and voted “Best and Most” teacher at SEHS.
Posted on: Sun, 01 Jun 2014 02:34:23 +0000
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