Jeffrey Earl Petrich

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Petrich, Jeffrey Earl Internationally-exhibited Minneapolitan painter Jeff Petrich's peerless artwork & incendiary style vivified & discomfited MN for a half-century. 5/1/43 to 7/16/14, preceded by parents Frank & Edith, succeeded by sons William Croix Petrich & Robert Buchen, Marie Rivard, godson Grant Hart, dear friends, & co-conspirators. A polar expressionist, Petrich was prolific with paint, paper, & pressure-sensitive plastic, commanding color with incomparable acuity. "I don't try to win, I just want to score," he'd say. Funny as hell, he was a man of the pavement, a soulful gardener, an obdurate dynamo who mailed peerless postcards, loved mistakes, hated hype, eschewed authority, & never touched a computer. Generally you were with Jeff, Jeff wasn't with you. It was unsettling & exciting, often indelibly educational. If you own his art, please contact his son via Cremation Society 612-825-2435 so he can procure photos/stories to document Jeff's work. Memorial show in Mpls May 2015 in lieu of a funeral, gallery/dates TBD. With a bright future behind him, Jeff's final years were atypically apical, his creative and intrapersonal prime. "My vow of poverty finally paid off," he quipped, and in the last year, his most productive, he kept saying "it gets better every day." So what's next for Jeff Petrich? He'll rest with his beloved river and disappear into thin art.

Published on July 20, 2014