The Hole

About the Gallery
The Hole is a contemporary art gallery run by Kathy Grayson. Opened in July of 2010, The Hole presents monthly solo and group exhibitions with a focus on emerging art and thematic group shows. We represent twenty-five artists from America and abroad, and have exhibited hundreds more. After opening a second location in Tribeca Spring 2021, we expanded to a new 8,000 sq. ft. space in Los Angeles February 2022. In between exhibitions we host performances, events, and special projects across disciplines to support collaboration and the downtown artist community.

About the Presentation
The Hole is pleased to present a solo booth by Croatian painter Grgur Akrap, the artist’s first solo presentation in the US. Working primarily in oil paint and wax on canvas, Akrap’s paintings evoke late-19th Century techniques and tropes remixed into more bizarre scenes with a contemporary feel. A Croatian perspective on the Parisian Post-Impressionists, there are bearded Matisse-looking fellows, wearing Renoir boating hats. The dense paintings, heavy with wax, have an atmosphere of dreams instead of plein-air, circulating mythological characters and wild beasts alongside human figures. Across the work, canvas is left not just raw but unstretched, creating work that feels both timeless and expansive, our imagination continuing beyond the fraying edges.

Grgur Akrap (b. 1988 Zagreb, Croatia) graduated from the Academy of Fine Arts in Zagreb In 2013. He has had numerous solo and museum exhibitions in Croatia along with recent solo shows in Denmark and Italy (both 2023). Independent will be the artist’s overdue stateside debut.