The greatest figurative painter living and working in Venice today
The renowned artist Geoffrey Humphries is the greatest figurative painter living and working in Venice today. He has established an international reputation as a master of painting, portraiture, watercolour and Expressionist fantasies revolving around the world of the cabaret.He is as famous for his bravura sense of colour as he is for the sensual nuance of his line, and his more recent forays into capturing Venice in watercolour have no equal - and indeed, bear comparison with Sargent and Turner.
He is one of the most gifted painters of his generation to turn his attention to portraiture, which he regards not as a chore or a necessary evil of the painter's trade, but as a means to probe the limits of human understanding, using paint to capture soul, psyche, and sensuality - in one go. The psychological acuity of his portraits has won him an ardent following, and his sitters range from locals of the Giudecca to rock stars and royalty.
No other painter of his generation uses colour as boldly, as passionately, and as brilliantly as Geoffrey Humphries. After over forty years in Venice, Geoffrey's palette is saturated with a light, a colour, a thrilling richness of sensation and tone and hue that is born of intimacy with the world of Bellini, Titian, Tiepolo and Veronese. But this saturation is coupled with an eye that is entirely his own - in his expressionist works we see a painter who recognizes the erotic pull of Secessionist Vienna as well as the depraved allure of the Berlin of Georg Grosz and Otto Dix.
Winner "Premio Alberoni", Venice
Selected Exhibitions
2017 The Osborne Studio Gallery, London
2015 Spencer Coleman Fine Art Ltd, Stamford
2008 Galleria IL Lago Montepiano, Tuscany
2008 Galleria Communale de' Bardi, Vernio
2007 Holly Snapp Gallery, Venice (to present)
2006 National Arts Club, Washington
2006 Galerie 40 Rother, Wiesbaden, Germany
2005 Fête Vénitienne", Beauchamps, Paris
2005 Manya Igel Fine Art, London
2004 Galerie Kunswekstatte Ralf Lake, Cloppenberg, Germany
2003 Manya Igel Fine Art, London
2003 The Royal Academy, London
2002 Manya Igel Fine Art, London
2002 Gallery Holly Snapp, Venice
2001 The Royal Portrait Society, London
2001 Gallery Holly Snapp, Venice
