The Olympic Agora 2021: Synthesizing Sport and Art

“For half my life, I trained my body and competed in sports. The other half, I traveled and created paintings. Through sports, I stay strong. Through art, I unearth beauty. Sports and art help me to swim upstream. For the Tokyo 2020 Games, I am super pleased that 6 of my artworks found their place on the starting blocks in the center of Tokyo for all to share.” 

-Gregory Burns 

Gregory slipped into the fabric of Asia in 1984, concluding a cloistered life painting the beauty and banality of the California Dream. Setting sail towards Taiwan and a deeper sense of purpose, he carved name seals out of stone while studying Chinese brush painting and calligraphy with local masters. Wandering from mountain peaks and temple ruins to underwater canyons while swimming with manta rays, Gregory has painted in over 60 countries. Through traveling and casting a wide net, Gregory pulls in a diverse collection of colors, cultures and imagery with which he expresses the power of the human spirit. His paintings and colors remind us that, though often challenged by adversity, “everything is going to be okay”.

Besides capturing gold medals in swimming during three Paralympic Games, Gregory won the prestigious 2016 Sports Artist of the Year Award and was chosen by the Olympic Cultural Foundation to exhibit during the Tokyo Summer Olympics. He has had retrospectives in a dozen countries including the J.F. Kennedy Center in Washington D.C., the Today Museum in Beijing, China and the Chiang Kai-shek Memorial in Taipei, Taiwan. He holds a BA in Communication Studies and a Master of Fine Arts. Gregory has published three books in English and Mandarin and has been interviewed by CNN, BBC, CNBC, ESPN, CNA, CCTV and in the AWSJ, Time Magazine and The China Daily.