Tonya Gregg was born and raised in South Carolina. She received a BFA from the Maryland Institute College of Art in 1997. It was at MICA that Gregg began her career as a painter and became the first full-time art student to be featured in New American Paintings. Gregg worked at the Baltimore Museum of Art for a year before moving to Chicago to pursue a Master of Fine Arts in painting from the University of Chicago from 1998 to 2000. She has worked in various art programs and taught college for several years. Gregg has exhibited in the U.S., Germany, Nicaragua, England and Canada. Her solo exhibitions include Columbia College, Gallery 1448, the Lawndale Art Center and Ithaca College. She has been an artist in residence at the Millay Colony in Austerlitz, New York, Red Gate in Beijing, China, the Banff Centre in Alberta, Canada and the Wollmagazin in Kaiserslautern, Germany. Gregg’s narrative paintings explore overlapping ideas about class, consumption, popular culture and ancient mythologies. ARTIST STATEMENT I have always been fascinated with glamour magazines, comic books, traditional African motifs and narrative historical paintings. These are the main sources of inspiration for my episodic paintings that comment on race, class, sexuality, and consumption among women of color. The personal and social narratives depict women navigating the shifting cultural influences and paradoxical worlds of contemporary life in their endeavor to embrace their own personhood. Broad themes that weave in and out of my work include women's ideals of beauty and various social perceptions of public versus private spaces, popular culture, ancient mythology and fantasy. My canvases feature women dressed in carefully coordinated fashions lounging in alluring and iconic poses while presenting themselves in a manner that is hyper aware of the gaze of the world that is focused upon them. They are often surrounded by objects of desire that display their eclectic tastes and interests. These women are on a personal quest to find a balance in life between sensual pleasures and intellectual and spiritual pursuits. Wide-eyed cherub-like fairies with Afro hair float through the scenes seeking to capture the attention of the women and the viewer. They serve as celestial messengers, and at times, impish pests with an omniscient view of the women's situations as well as a pragmatic plan aimed at reinforcing the subject's authenticity. The cherubs' wisdom suggests finding a version of the good life that can both integrate and transcend the material trappings. The colors, shapes and patterns of these objects of desire unify the compositions while forwarding the narratives. I paint on linen because of its symbolic and historical associations with Egyptian royalty attire, as well as its connection with Dutch masters' painting surfaces. The muted warm gray of the linen surface allows the saturated colors of the women's bodies, fashions and accoutrements to express the vibrancy of their many-sided worlds. Ultimately, the elements are integrated and contrasted with one another to allow complex and often oppositional ideas about the characters and the environments they inhabit.