Gromyko Semper

Gromyko Semper is an artist based in Cabanatuan City, Philippines. Largely self taught, his work has been exhibited
in Singapore, France, Spain, Germany, Poland, Austria, Mexico, the United States, Portugal, and the United Kingdom.
Semper’s drawings are executed to imitate woodcut prints, embody a personal, invented mythology after the fashion
of William Blake in the early nineteenth century; the symbolists, surrealists and decadents; Botanical, Anatomical,
Occult and Alchemical Illustrations, and the forerunner of Vienna School of Fantastic Realism, the influential
visionary painter, Ernst Fuchs. Semper’s woodblock style has some affinities with Albretch Durer’s, but is quite
unique, drawing heavily on both the Roman Catholic and supernatural folk traditions of the Philippines, quantum
mechanics, alchemy, world mythology, classical art, occult, art nouveau, and the gamut of erotic drawing from
Japanese Ukiyo-E to Aubrey Beardsley.
Gromyko see his artwork as a mystic revelation of a hitherto unknown mythos and pantheon, a synthesis of Jung,
Kabala, Gnosticism, and various archetypes borrowed from the ancient civilizations of the Mediterranean, the
Middle and Far East to encode a synthesis of his views.
In 2009 he worked with Mexican artist Hector Pineda to co-edit the book “Imagine the Imagination – new visions of
Surrealism”. He was also included in the publication.
His works are also included in numerous publications particularly related to the Visionary/Fantastic/Surreal art
Genres, the latest of which was Liba Warring Stambollion’s colophon/book “DIVINING THE DREAM”, published in
winter 2012 on Paris, France, where his work is published alongside the top names of the aforementioned genre. He
was also included in the Latest encyclopedia of surrealism, published in Vienna,Austria, the “LEXICON SURREAL”,
edited by emeritus Prof. Gerhard Habarta. In 2013, he co edited the book “ENCYCLOPDEIA OF FERNAL
AFFAIRS”(Published in 2015) with Liba WS, Bruce Rimmel and others. He represented the Philippines in the recent X
Florence Biennale, along with other Filipino Artists as part of the Philippine Delegation under Artesan Gallery of
Singapore. He has curated Local and International Exhibitions and have Illustrated the book cover of the translated
version of Dante’s Inferno. He is recognized internationally as an active voice of the Contemporary Visionary and
Surreal Art movement.