This page features informal images of recent work, some still in progress. Occasionally details of reference materials and rarely seen examples of work from previous periods are also shared here.

An updated list of works available for sale directly from the studio may be requested via email to: info@griswoldliberveritatis.com or by direct message on Instagram: @liberveritatis

Presented here is an assortment across decades of John Griswold’s works on paper, ranging from preparatory sketches in various media to drawings with collaged elements and emblematic imagery.

A solo exhibition at the new Tatistcheff Gallery in Santa Monica, California, the New York dealer’s west coast outpost. This series of oil paintings, ranging widely in scale, featured handbill miniatures arranged in the coastal mountains of the Santa Ynez Valley, bathed in sunlight reminiscent of the artist’s time working in Greece. Griswold’s paint handling recalls the academic realism championed by Jean Léon Gerôme and the Orientalists of the late 19th century.

A mock-historical installation based on a fictional scenario where stashes of hidden artifacts and ephemera related to a mystery cult were discovered under floorboards and behind wall paneling during renovations at the Gold Bug Gallery in Pasadena, California. The exhibition was accompanied by a facsimile offprint of a scholarly journal paper from 1947, documenting the finds. “Artifacts” related to the F.S.O.S.T. (Fraternal Society of Supplicants to Trophonios) included festooned banners with oil-painted emblematic imagery, typed oracular messages on cut strips of paper, trompe l’oeil ceremonial blindfolds comprised of pairs of painted golden coins and ribbon ties, ceremonial garb, divination tools, and more.

Physical props, whether archaeological artifacts used in rituals of Greco-Roman mystery cults, paraphernalia of modern secret societies, or “hero props” from major motion pictures, are objects designed to evoke senses of mystery, wonder, or even terror.

Griswold finds commonality between the graphic imagery that guides one’s progress on 19th century game boards, game spinners, divination tools, and illusory mechanisms designed to induce transformational experiences of suppliants in initiation ceremonies ancient and modern.

Special Collections II was a group exhibition wherein artists were invited to create an original cover for a favorite book. Curated by Danny Shain at 515 Gallery, Los Angeles, in August 2025.

An exhibition dedicated to the memory of legendary gallerist and co-founder of Juxtapoz, Greg Escalante, who originally conceived of this exhibition. It was curated by F. Scott Hess and held at sp[a]ce Gallery in Pasadena, California, from February 4 to March 11, 2018. Griswold’s contribution was a small group of oil paintings exhibited with a video installation of his moving picture tableaux.

September 10 to October 1, 2022: Carrie Anne Baade (Solo) / Maryrose Crook, John Griswold surrealist group painting show, La Luz de Jesus Gallery, Los Angeles, California

A recurring inspiration throughout Griswold’s work is the Dance of Death, or la Danse Macabre, populated with lively skeletons. Examples by Holbein and Rowlandson are favorites. The allegorical theme of the all-conquering and equalizing power of death serves as a launching point for addressing complex layers of implied meaning, often framed with a frenetic energy. Animating these visions by use of layered video collage, incorporating stop motion and live action puppetry techniques adds the critical time-based element.

Still frames from some of these “moving picture tableaux” are seen here.

Modern Myths : Classical Renewal : A traveling exhibition curated by Sandy Harthorn of the Boise Gallery of Art, April 18-January 4, 1987; the other venues including Yellowstone Art Center, Billings, Montana July 11-August 23, 1987; Museum of Art, Washington State University, Pullman, Washington, September 4-September 27, 1987; and Mills College Art Gallery, Oakland, California, November 1-December 15, 1987.

This show and catalog featured painters working throughout north America and Europe under the informal aegis of Postmodern Classicism in the 1980’s, including David Ligare, Martha Meyer Erlebacher, Carlo Maria Mariani, John Griswold, Jon Swihart, Gregory Gillespie and others.