Groveland Gallery is pleased to announce the opening of Life on the Mississippi, an exhibition of new paintings by James Conaway. Conaway is a former Hamline University professor who taught studio art and art history for over three decades. He is now a full-time artist. He has been exhibiting his paintings at galleries throughout the U.S. for over 50 years.  His work has been part of numerous group exhibitions at museums and art centers including the Walker Art Center, Milwaukee Art Museum, and the Scottsdale Center for the Arts. Conaway has been represented by Groveland Gallery since 1996

Conaway has a life-long interest in observing and responding to the Minnesota landscapes which surround him. For nearly 30 decades, he has worked three blocks from the Mississippi River in his studio at the Traffic Zone building on 3^rd Avenue in Minneapolis. In July of 2016, Conaway moved his residence even closer to the river. This move precipitated more regular walks around the area and these frequent walks piqued Conaway’s interest in the river and its history. The artist states, “My home has always been in the cities along the Mississippi River. From suburban St. Louis to Davenport Iowa, and finally Minneapolis in 1967. Since then, my studio has been within two to three blocks of the river. As a dedicated walker, the riverside is my favorite place and I know it very well. For the last decade, my work has been about the Mississippi River. My paintings are all abstractions painted in my studio from shapes, lines and colors that are stored within my memories of the river.”