Charles Rogers Grooms, or Red Grooms, was won over by Theatre and he gravitated towards it, believing there was a magical essence there.

He says, “Whatever it took to do that and make that magic, I wanted to be a part of. I didn’t want to be a star; I just wanted to be a part of the works.” His ideal job was a set designer for movies, that way there’d be a greater reach to a wide audience. Thankfully things went sideways, and he emerged on the art scene with the nickname Red, which came from his fiery red hair. His intensely physical performance dated back to his high school years when he allowed the football team to charge and stomp on him.

The theatrical elements of Grooms’ artwork comes from a variety of influences like Walt Disney, Robert Wilson, and Jackson Pollack to circuses and carnivals. Grooms showcased the first Happenings (a combination of dance, theatre, music, poetry, visual arts) in September 1959 to a crowd in Provincetown, Massachusetts. He occasionally painted his face white, really letting that flaming red hair stand out, to get into the character of the "Pasty Man." 

Grooms was one of those art kids that wanted to make anything and everything he could get his hands on, at whatever opportunity presented itself, and even creating his own opportunities. With the abstract expressionist painter Jay Milder, Grooms started his own gallery on West 24^th Street, which happened to be his apartment. This was City Gallery, and it lasted a beautiful six months. Grooms surrounded himself with artists in New York City: Alex Katz, John Cage, Claes Oldenburg. The artist Mimi Gross was his wife.

The showstopper of Grooms’ career (and there have been a few moments in his career that really took off, e.g. that $2.5 million Marlins sculpture controversy), Ruckus Manhattan really skyrocketed him in the art world. This papier-mache, vinyl, and fiberglass reproduction of the Manhattan borough is of monstrous proportions, complete with a subway car that’s almost life size and the Brooklyn Bridge made out of metal and sturdy enough to have you walk across its surface. Ruckus Manhattan was a collaboration with Mimi Gross, but once the art piece was completed, their relationship fell apart. 

Grooms continues to make spectacular works of art, reminiscent of the golden days of theatre. Showstopping art that entices the audience. Apart from the theatrical Happenings, painting, and the papier-mache works, Groomes dabbles in sculpture. He creates sculpto-pictoramas, a freakish and exciting hybrid of sculptures and paintings.