Griendling, a native of Philadelphia, began his career in the arts in 1972 as a graphic designer in a Philadelphia area studio. In 1974, seeking to broaden his experience in the graphic field, Griendling accepted a position as a graphic designer for an educational television station and then a commercial station. In order to explore his interests in painting and sculpture, he embarked on a full-time freelance career in 1975.
In 1976 Griendling accepted a grant for an artist-in-residence position in Montana. There he explored his growing interest in the relationship of how two-dimensional painting could be employed to define three-dimensional space. This interest eventually led Griendling to Kentucky to accept a number of grants to work on one, time-consuming sculpture project for the Coca-Cola Bottling Company of Elizabethtown. This artwork received significant national and international attention.
Individuals, corporations and museums are among Griendling's clients as he currently collaborates to produce site-specific commissioned artworks that capture human moments, movements and emotions; works that succinctly deliver a poignant and timeless impression to viewers. A recent example includes The Alabama Music Hall of Fame, where the musical group Alabama stands ready to perform. At the Alabama Sports Hall of Fame in Birmingham, track and field Olympic gold medalist, Jesse Owen, is eternally suspended in his famous mid-stride long jump. And then, there is football legend Bart Starr, as he grasps the pigskin, ready to snap one of his long, precise, winning passes.
In 1997 Griendling worked on two extensive sculpture commissions. One design, for the Nolin Rural Electric Cooperative in Elizabethtown, Kentucky, chronicles the past, celebrates the present and looks toward the "bright" future of human discoveries made possible through the evolution of electricity. There are three sculptures in this commission which are composed of plaster, steel and, of course, light.
A second commission greets visitors as they enter the new University of Kentucky Children's Hospital in Lexington, Kentucky. This five-piece work of plaster, steel and oils captures the fanciful flight of five, life-size children as they hitch a wild and colorful ride on large balls that are escaping into a 40' high atrium space.
These works and others have been featured in over ninety newspaper and magazine articles and on television segments in the United States, Canada, Great Britain and Japan.
Recent major commissions, purchases and exhibits include:
1998 - “Filling the Void: The Art of Casting”,
Invitational Louisville Visual Art
Association Exhibit,
Louisville, Kentucky.
1997 -Sculpture commission for
The University of Kentucky Children's Hospital,
Lexington, Kentucky.
1997 - Sculpture commission for
Nolin Rural Electric Corporation,
Elizabethtown, Kentucky.
1993 -Sculpture commission for
First Federal Savings Bank,
Elizabethtown, Kentucky.
1991 -Sculpture commission for
The Alabama Sports Hall of Fame,
Birmingham, Alabama.
1991 -Sculpture commission for
Spine Surgery, Inc.,
Louisville, Kentucky.
1990 - Sculpture commission for The Alabama
Music Hall of Fame in Tuscaloosa, Alabama.
1990 -Sculpture purchase by Hilliard and Lyons
Investment Company for its corporate collection
and executive offices, Louisville, Kentucky.
1989 -Sculpture commission for The Tennessee
State Museum's Early 1900 Exhibit,
Nashville, Tennessee.
1987 -The Kentuckians:
1987 Exhibit at The National Arts Club,
New York City.
-The Owensboro Museum of Fine Art Exhibit,
Owensboro, Kentucky.
1986 -Sculpture commission for
Kentucky Fried Chicken World Headquarters,
Louisville, Kentucky.
1985- Winner of Hospital Corporation of
America Fine Art Competition,
Nashville, Tennessee.
1983 -Winner of Capitol Plaza Art Exhibit
Sculpture Competition,
Frankfort, Kentucky.
1982 -Museum Guild Purchase Award,
Mid-States Show, Evansville Museum of
Arts and Sciences,
Evansville, Indiana.
The Elizabethtown artist has already drawn national media attention for his unique paintings, sculptures and designs.
Consider that one of Griendling's works of super-realism was overlooked in a museum art show when the judge supposed that a young woman, curled up with a book in an easy chair, was a museum worker instead of a plaster sculpture entered in the exhibition.
Remember the name,
Rich Griendling."
-Byron Crawford.
The Courier-Journal,
Louisville, Kentucky
