Ninad was born in Torrence, California June 24 1937 as Jerald Gibson of French and Scottish descent. In 1960 he was awarded a scholarship to the California College of Arts and Crafts, Berkeley, CCAC to study painting. Upon completing his studies in 1965 and after a brief stay in New York he moved to Paris, France. “It was my dream then to see the original painting of the classic and modern European Masters. Paris was revolutionary and initiated a kind of aesthetic and spiritual awakening. I literally lived in the museums soaking up all the treasures I had loved from books.” In Paris he painted, exhibited and travelled throughout France. Around 1969 he moved to Holland making his studio in Amsterdam. There he exhibited in the Stedelijk Museum, his son was born and they travelled periodically, visiting many of the major Museums throughout Europe. In 1986 with his son he moved to the Osho Commune, Rajneeshpuram in Oregon, USA. It was there he was given a new name, Anutosh Ninad. In Sanscrit, Anutosh means Contentment and Ninad means, the sounds of nature are music. In 1988 they went to Florence, Italy and then moved to the Osho Commune in Pune, India. There he was an Artist in Residence and Faculty Member of the Osho Multiversity, School of the Creative Arts. The Multiversity was an immense experiment overflowing in creative energy that inspired a huge transformation in my painting from a preoccupation with the outer reality to a vision of the energies within nature that give life to form. In 1990 he moved to Kamakura, Japan, a small temple city on the Shonan coast one hour from Tokyo. “I always loved Japanese Art and wanted to study and absorb the culture that produced it. Japan is a fascinating culture of opposites with a very deep spiritual tradition woven into a modern facade.” In tokyo and Korea he made major exhibitions and produced a huge body of work that remains seminal to his vision. He created the Kamakura School of Painting and taught painting to hundreds of adults and children. His paintings are in private collections in Japan, Korea, Europe and America. In 2006 He returned to the USA and made his studio in Los Angeles, California where he is presently painting and exhibiting.
Artist’s Statement
I was always drawing as a child. We lived in the foothills of Central California among orchards, farms, rock quarries and huge rolling hills. I was utterly thrilled and loved the trees and wild grasses. There were deer, mountain lions, rabbits. skunks, raccoons. possums. bears, goats, squirrels, rattlesnakes, tarantulas, gophers, pheasants and quail. We hiked, camped and cooked under the stars, slept in caves, climbed trees and cliffs. My artistic sensibility grew from that. Rolling around in dirt, grass, stones and trees, the colors, smells and tactile touch formed a matrix of dark and light, lines, smells, color and textures that wove into my being a sense of the profundity and beauty of being alive. When I first saw the paintings of Vincent Van Gogh my brain became a fever of passion to paint all that I loved and That has remained the essential force and energy behind my art. What we love is what gives us life. Love creates our intelligence, our thirst for freedom and the power to create. Painting is my greatest adventure, it has proven to be an endless source of life, energy and a path to the unknown. Endless also because I have followed so many others and others will follow me. We can see in the work of each artist all those who preceded and what was added. Now that is a magnificent perspective. For I have loved so many Artists and to see that somewhere here we are all joined in one great work of Art.
It seems to me the history of art is a history of growing consciousness and irrepressible movement toward greater freedom. A slow peeling of the onion from belief, superstition, religious and political tyranny, to a deepening insight into nature, our psychology and spiritual potential. This has led me to seek behind the world of apparent form to search among the energies and mysteries within existence. For me Art must be rooted in our individual and common longing for life, in science and a cosmology that seeks to join us to each other, to nature and to our spiritual growth.
Education
- Studied painting, graphic arts, art history and literature at Oakland City College, Oakland Calif. U.S.A. 1959
- Awarded a scholarship to study painting, drawing and art history at the California College of Arts and Crafts, C.C,A.C. in Berkeley, Calif. U.S.A. 1960 to 1963
- Studied painting at the San Francisco Institute of Art, San Francisco, California U.S.A. 1962 to 1964
Teaching Positions
- Taught painting and drawing at the Museum of Modern Art, San Francisco, California U.S.A. 1964
- Taught Art for the Berkeley School District, Berkeley, California, U.S.A. 1965
- Taught painting and drawing at the Institute for the Harmonic Development of Man, Amsterdam, Holland 1975 to 1983
- Artist in Residence and Faculty Member of the Osho Multiversity, School of the Creative Arts, Poona, India 1988 to 1990
- Teacher and Adviser for, Osho Art Unity Co. Kamakura, Kanagawa, Japan 1993 to 2005
- Founder and Faculty Member of the Kamakura School of Oil Painting, Kamakura, Japan 1995 to 2006
Painting & Drawing Workshops
- In the Guggenheim Museum New York, N.Y. U.S.A. 1965
- In the Musee Du Louvre, Paris, France 1968 to 1969
- In the Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam, Holland 1975 to 1983
- In the Kroller Mueller Museum, Holland 1975 to 1984
- In the Uffizi Museum, Florence,Italy 1987
Exhibitions (Individual & Collective)
- 1966 Centre American, Rue Raspail, Paris, France (collective)
- 1966 Galerie and Chateau de Charbonnier, France (individual)
- 1967 Le Centre, Rue Moufftard, Paris, France (collective)
- 1968 Galerie St. flour, Auvergne, France (collective)
- 1969 Cite Universitaire, Antony, France (individual)
- 1975 UMA Salon, Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam, Holland (collective)
- 1976 Winter Salon, Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam, Holland (collective)
- 1977 Winter Salon, Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam, holland (collective)
- 1978 UMA Salon, Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam, Holland (collective)
- 1979 Melkweg Gallery, Amsterdam Holland (collective)
- 1981 Gallery Kosmos, Prinshendrikade, Amsterdam, Holland (individual)
- 1983 Satgeet Gallery, V Spejkstraat, Amsterdam, Holland (individual)
- 1984 Gallery Zorba, Oudejijds Voorburgwal, Amsterdam Holland (collective)
- 1986 Bodega Gallery, Bodega Huy, Sebastopol, California, U.S.A. (individual)
- 1986 Sausalito Galleries, open fair, San Francisco California. (collective)
- 1986 Creative Group Gallery, Sobel B.Q. San Francisco, California, U.S.A. (individual)
- 1988 Radha Hall, Osho Commune, Poona, India. (individual)
- 1988 Meera Center Gallery, poona, India. (individual)
- 1989 Van Gogh Art Gallery, Poona India. (individual)
- 1990 Unity Gallery Rooms, Kawana, Shizuoka, Japan. (individual)
- 1990 ” This Is It Gallery” Nagoya, Japan. (individual)
- 1991 The Swiss Grand Hotel, Exhibition Hall, Seoul, Korea (individual)
- 1991 Yokyo International Art Show, Tokyo, Japan (collective)
- 1991 Yokohama Shi Ookurayamakinenkan, Japan (2 man show)
- 1992 Osho Meditation Art Gallery, Komae, Tokyo. (individual)
- 1992 Exhibition and Lecture, Chuo Kominkan, Kamakura, Japan. (individual)
- 1992 Matiere Komachi Dori, Kamakura, Japan. (individual)
- 1994 Sogo Department Store Gallery, Yokohama, Japan. (individual)
- 1996 Miyako Hotel Exhibition Hall, Tokyo, Japan. (individual)
- 1996 Miyako Hotel Exhibition Hall, Kyoto, Japan. (individual)
- 1997 Miyako Hotel Exhibition Hall, Tokyo, Japan. (3 man show)
- 2004 Don O’Melveny Gallery, West Hollywood, CA (individual)
- 2005 Ninad Gallery, Kamakura, Japan (individual)
- 2006 Ninad Gallery, Kamakura, Japan (individual)
- 2007 The Wellness Center, 1055 N Harper Ave. W. Hollywood, California (individual)
- 2008 Regenesis Energy Center, 1645 16th Street, Santa Monica, California (individual)
- 2009 Historic Gas Co. Lofts. Exhibition Gallery, 810 S, Flower St. Los Angeles, California. (individual)
- 2010 Novel Exhibition Gallery, 2507 Main St. Santa Monica, California. (individual)
- 2010 Spiniferous Gallery, 3509 W Pico Blvd, Los Angeles California (individual, permanent collection)