Grimm Outlook

by Rose Flores Medlock | Riviera Orange County magazine | January 27, 2012

One can’t help but wonder whether Amy Grimm has been inspired by the very nature of her name. Before becoming entrenched in various museum environs, the Irvine Valley College assistant professor embarked on a career in human services—working with psychiatric patients. And, more recently, she pulled together a collection of gothic works from artists throughout the country for an exhibit that debuts this month at Santa Ana’s Orange County Center for Contemporary Art.

“My work with various psychiatric populations helped me understand a kind of psychological darkness, especially with my work with schizophrenic adults,” Grimm says. “Hollywood monsters are one thing, but it is the potential darkness in our minds that is truly horrific.”

As for the exhibit, simply titled Gothic, the timing couldn’t be better: With NBC’s new drama, Grimm, pulling in roughly 4 million viewers each Friday night through December, it seems at least a portion of society is expressing interest in what Grimm calls “pleasurable fear.” “It gets the heart pumping, gives us a jolt of adrenaline and makes us feel more alive,” she says. “People find many ways to have these experiences, and I personally think an interest in the gothic genre is one of the healthiest, sanest ways to have that kind of experience.”

For all of her attention to this genre, Grimm’s body of work knows no bounds. In 2005, Kate Bonansinga, director of the University of Texas at El Paso’s Stanlee and Gerald Rubin Center for the Visual Arts, invited her to participate in an Andy Warhol exhibit. (Grimm’s master’s thesis at the University of South Carolina, Columbia was all about Warhol.) “She always brings a certain level of ambition to whatever project she engages in,” says Bonansinga. “She is really committed to contemporary art and... how it makes our world better.” To that end: The following year, Grimm curated an exhibit by environmental sculptor Harry Geffert for the El Paso Museum of Art.

And about that name connection with her latest project, Grimm says she’s been joking about it since agreeing to jury the show: “I think it is a rather funny coincidence.”