John Gruenwald, painter, printmaker, teacher, and master printer, was born in Milwaukee, Wisconsin in 1951. He received in BFA in printmaking in 1974 from the Layton School of Art and Design in Milwaukee. After graduation, he and his former instructor, Roland Poska, became partners in a collaborative print shop, Fishy Whale Press, printing stone lithographs for other artists. In 1975 he operated the Windmill Press in Taos, New Mexico for a year before returning to Milwaukee where he owned Cream City Graphics until 1985. He remained in Wisconsin for a decade working as a printmaker and master printer.

Gruenwald moved to San Francisco, California in 1995. For three years, he partnered with Terry Chastain in Tinhorn Gallery, a storefront print gallery and studio in Hayes Valley, until he opened Gruenwald Press on Mission Street in 2003. In 2017, Gruenwald packed up his studio and moved to Humboldt County where he set up the Gruenwald Press in 2018 in McKinleyville.

John Gruenwald is a member of the California Society of Printmakers and has been a master printer for their Artist in Residence Program. Gruenwald’s work has been featured in numerous solo and two-person exhibitions. About his artistic career, he wrote: In my 40-year plus career of collaborating and editioning prints, I have worked with over 300 artists. I have taught printmaking at Milwaukee Institute of Art & Design, published print portfolios, owned a print gallery, and given workshops.