Don Gorvett was born in Boston, MA, in 1949 and raised within its environs of Cambridge and Somerville, MA. He spent his youth at the seashore swimming, fishing, and observing the fishing-town industry. The Gorvett family eventually moved to Burlington, MA, where high school art instructor Elinor Marvin discovered his talents. Don received an extraordinary art education focused on drawing, graphic arts, and theatrical set design. With the encouragement of Elinor Marvin and the support of Ogunquit summer resident Annabelle Lewis, Don began his summer-long painting excursions to Ogunquit, Maine, starting the summer before college in 1968. Mr. Gorvett attended the School of the Museum of Fine Arts through the Ford Junior Fellowship Grant. After completing graduation requirements, Mr. Gorvett moved his primary residence to Gloucester, MA, to pursue a career in painting.
While in Gloucester, Don was introduced to Mrs. Buswell, heiress to the Jacobean-style Stillington Hall estate. She offered the well-furnished dressing rooms in the estate’s theater to the artist to live and work. He set up his first etching press on the stage above his rooms. During his residence at Stillington Hall, he also organized classical music concerts and private wedding events. In 1990, Mr. Gorvett made Ogunquit his full-time home, where he continued to develop his reduction woodcut technique.
In 2006, Don Gorvett opened his first gallery with a printmaking studio in downtown Portsmouth, NH, called Piscataqua Fine Arts, named after the Piscataqua River, dividing the southern boundaries of New Hampshire and Maine. In early 2020, Don moved the etching press and set up a new studio at the Beacon Marine Basin in Gloucester, MA. Don has renamed his popular Portsmouth gallery from Piscataqua Fine Arts to Don Gorvett Gallery. In Gloucester, the studio’s spacious second-floor loft at the historic marina allows him to create new work, offer workshops, and exhibit his and other artist’s work.
Don Gorvett woodcuts are in the permanent collections of public and private institutions such as the Addison Gallery of American Art at Phillips Academy, Andover, MA; Boston Athenaeum; Brigham and Women’s Hospital, Boston, MA; Currier Museum of Art, Manchester, NH; Farnsworth Art Museum, Rockland, ME; Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge, UK; Harvard University, Cambridge, MA; Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, MA; Ogunquit Museum of American Art, Ogunquit, ME; Peabody Essex Museum, Salem, MA; Portland Museum of Art, Portland, ME; Portsmouth Historical Society, Portsmouth, NH; Smith College Museum of Art, Northampton, MA; and Worcester Art Museum, Worcester, MA.
Photograph by Carina Furino, © Don Gorvett Gallery, 2015
EDUCATION - Awarded Ford Junior Fellowship to School of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, Graduated 1972
SELECTED JURIED AND INVITATIONAL EXHIBITIONS -
Don Gorvett: Waterfronts and Woodcuts, Perakos Family Cares Art Gallery at the Frederick Gunn School, Washington, CT. 2023
Society of American Graphic Artists, 88th Annual at The Old Print Shop, NY, NY. 2023
Don Gorvett: An Ogunquit Journey 1968 to Present, The Ogunquit Heritage Museum, Ogunquit, ME. 2023
Society of American Graphic Artists, 87th Annual at The Salmagundi Club, NY, NY. 2022
Don Gorvett: Working Waterfronts, A retrospective of over sixty woodcuts, drawings, and paintings. Portsmouth Historic Society, Portsmouth, NH. 2021
CAM Connects, Objects and works of art from the Cape Ann Museum’s collection. Gloucester, MA. 2020, 2021
Cortile Gallery, 9th Annual Artists Invitational, Provincetown, MA. 2019
Master Prints & Master Printers: From the Studios of Don Gorvett & Robert Townsend, Portsmouth Public Library, Portsmouth, NH. 2019
New England Bio Labs, Art Focus, Ipswich, MA. 2019
Master Prints and Master Printers: Piscataqua Fine Arts and RE Townsend Studios, Spencer Presentation Gallery at Endicott College, Beverly, MA. 2017
Master Prints and Master Printers: Perkins Cove Gallery and RE Townsend Studios, Lewis Gallery at the Portland Public Library, Portland, ME. 2017
Portrait of a Port, Don Gorvett: 25 Years in Portsmouth, NH, Tyco Visitors Center, Strawbery Banke Museum, Portsmouth, NH. 2016
Don Gorvett: 25 Years in Portsmouth, A Chronology of Prints and Drawings, Portsmouth Public Library, Portsmouth, NH. 2016
Urban Landscapes: Manchester and the Modern American City, Currier Museum of Art, Manchester, NH. 2016
Don Gorvett: Woodcuts & Drawings, Cove Gallery, Wellfleet, MA. 2016
Vincent, Weaver, Gorvett: Gloucester, Three Visions, Cape Ann Museum, Gloucester, MA. 2015
Showcase Solo Shows: Don Gorvett, Woodcuts & Norman West, Paintings, Ogunquit Artist Association, Ogunquit, ME. 2015
Don Gorvett and Karen Whitman, Two Contemporary Artists, The Old Print Shop, NY, NY. 2015
Perspectives, New Hampshire Institute of Art, Manchester, NH. 2014
Don Gorvett: Work & Process, Jackson Library Gallery, Berwick Academy, So. Berwick, ME. 2014
Bridging the Piscataqua, Academy Gallery, Discover Portsmouth, Portsmouth, NH. 2013
Don Gorvett Woodcut: Blocks and Prints. Salem State University, Winfisky Gallery, Salem, MA. 2013
Master/Mentor - Mentor/Master, A Fine Thing: E.T. Pollock’s Fine Art, Portland, ME. 2012
Don Gorvett: Woodcuts and Drawings. Patty & Jay Baker Naples Museum of Art, Naples, FL. 2010
Past and Present, Woodcuts by Don Gorvett, Carol Grillo Gallery, Endicott College, Beverly, MA. 2010
PUBLIC AND PRIVATE COLLECTIONS & PURCHASES
Cape Ann Museum, Gloucester, MA. 1996, 1999, 2023
Portsmouth Historical Society, Portsmouth, NH. 2021
Brigham and Women’s Hospital, Estrellita Karsh Collection, Boston, MA. 2002, 2016, 2018
Museum of Fine Art, Boston, MA. 2014, 2017
Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge University, Cambridge, United Kingdom 2016
Farnsworth Museum of Art, Rockland, ME. 2014
Addison Gallery of American Art, Phillips Academy, Andover, MA. 2014
Worcester Art Museum, Worcester, MA. 2014
Smith College Museum of Art, Northampton, MA. 2013
Duxbury Art Complex Museum, Duxbury, MA. 1991, 2012
Boston Athenaeum, Boston, MA. 2007
Ogunquit Museum of American Art, Ogunquit, ME. 1993, 2001, 2006
Currier Museum of Art, Manchester, NH. 2006
The Old Print Shop, New York, NY. 2004
Providence Equity Partners Inc, Providence, RI. 2002
Harvard Law School, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA. 2001
Fidelity Investments, Boston, MA. 2000, 2001, 2004
Portland Museum of Art, Portland, ME. 1998, 1999
United Technologies, Hartford, CT. 1997
Cape Ann Museum Gloucester, MA. 1996
Museum of Fine Arts, Hanoi, Vietnam. 1992
Duxbury Art Complex Museum, print purchase, Duxbury, MA. 1991
Kon-Tiki Illustrated Book, National Geographic Library, Washington, D.C. 1972
GALLERY AFFILIATIONS & ORGANIZATION
Don Gorvett Gallery 2006 to Present
Society of American Graphic Artists, NY, NY. 2017 to present.
Old Print Shop, NY, NY. 2006 to present.
Ogunquit Art Association, President 1987, Ogunquit, ME. 1986 to present.
Hutchens Gallery, Perkins Cove, Ogunquit, ME. 2020
Exeter Fine Crafts, Exeter, NH. 2014 - 2017
League of New Hampshire Craftsmen, Concord, NH. 2015 - 2017
Black Bear Fine Arts, Ogunquit, ME, 2010 - 2011, 2015 -2017
Cove Gallery, Wellfleet, MA. 2016
Cuckle Button Gallery, Perkins Cove, Ogunquit, ME. 2010, 2014
Julie Heller Gallery, Provincetown, MA. 2014
Gravure Gallery, Gloucester, MA. 2009 -2010
Bowersock Gallery, Provincetown, MA. 2007-2013
Hay Gallery, Portland, ME. 2002
Acacia Gallery, Gloucester, MA. 1998
Wohlfarth Gallery, Washington D.C. 1997
West End Gallery, Gloucester, MA. 1997
Artists Circle Limited, Potomac, MD. 1995-96
Point Gallery, York Harbor, ME. 1994-95
Matrix Gallery, Provincetown, MA. 1994
Boston Printmakers, Boston, MA. Board Member 1986-2007
Frost Gully Gallery, Portland, ME. 1993
O’Farrell Gallery, Brunswick, ME. 1993
Arden Gallery, Boston, MA. 1993
Nancy Barrett Gallery, Portsmouth, NH. 1990-2006
New Hampshire Art Association, Portsmouth, NH. 1986
Union of Maine Visual Artists, Portland, ME. 1984
Copley Society, Boston, MA. 1976