MR. IMAGINATION (1948 - 2012)
Untitled.

Mixed media and found objects on industrial sandstone, 2001. 812 mm; 32 inches in length. Signed and dated in acrylic, verso.

Provenance: private collection, New York; gifted to private collection, Pennsylvania.

Gregory Warmack, also known as Mr. Imagination, was a self-taught artist whose practice focused on assemblage. Using the detritus of everyday life, he worked in many forms to investigate life and spirituality through mythic compositions. In the 1970s, he made and sold art at street fairs in Chicago.

After a mugging and hospitalization in 1978, he had a spiritual vision which he described as "very peaceful, almost as if I was traveling through history and looking at ancient civilizations." Warmack was inspired to renew his practice and worked extensively in sculptures carved from industrial sandstone and incorporating thousands of bottlecaps fastened to surfaces of the sculpted objects. He used paint, wood, nails, putty, cement and found objects in his work, including vintage commercial items and discarded objects such as tools, household instruments, and mirrors. Many of his works were thematically influenced by African and Egyptian masks and dress.