Concrete Drawing is a new series of cement works by J Grabowski that live somewhere between drawing, painting, performance, and sculpture. The title describes the process in which the works are made, drawing directly into the material, while gleaning from Concrete Poetry and Musique Concrète, an experimental type of music composition pioneered by Luc Ferrari, that utilizes recorded sounds as raw material. Similarly J's cement works act as a record of their own process of coming into form, slowly building a visual language akin to cuneiform, pictograms, and modern signage.

Some notes J made after a night of failure:

“These works are the opposite of my drawings. My drawings are made instantly, in one motion. These concrete works are difficult to make. I have about ten minutes to work, precisely. If I work too early, the paint floats away. If I wait too long, it dries before I can finish. After I draw it out, I have to stop and live with it. I immediately feel regret and dissatisfaction. I feel like I’m drawing into water and trying to keep it together long enough for ice to form. These works feel more like a performance -- trying to keep my attention open and stay relaxed enough to let the drawing happen, yet at any moment, I can lose focus, and it can change. I find these images captivating because of the oil and water impossibility they embody. They resemble molten ash in rock; long periods of time and also an instant of freezing or drying. It’s all there in front while somehow retaining its mystery and simplicity.”