Geoffrey Laurence | Inheritance

Geoffrey Laurence | Inheritance

October 1 5-7pm

On Friday, October 1st from 5-7pm, Skotia Gallery will be holding the opening reception for Inheritance, new paintings by local Santa Fe artist Geoffrey Laurence. Skotia will be concurrently hosting the final American showing of photographer and Hungarian national treasure Péter Korniss’s Attachment exhibition.  Attachment was previously on view at the Hungarian Cultural Center in New York in April 2010 and Skotia Gallery will be the final chance to view these pieces in the United States.

Laurence will be showing around 25 paintings, drawings and studies exploring the very personal connection he has with the Holocaust and his feelings about growing up as the child of survivors. The show will be a powerful personal essay on the struggle for an understanding of the atrocities of WWII and its connection with his family history.

Laurence has been drawing and painting the figure for more than thirty years.  Not very interested in the pop art or conceptual art of his contemporaries, he found himself more engaged with the luminosity of the figures seen in the museums of old masters.  He works with a three-layer oil painting process known as indirect painting using glazes and color to highlight his structural forms with the intention to use classicism in a modern way.  Geoffrey’s work explores the relationship between the contemporary figure and specific classical paintings.  Though his work utilizes the knowledge of 600 years of classical painting there is an intention to maintain a connection between the old masters techniques and its relationship to the representation of the modern figure. He does not consider himself a naturalistic realist but is more concerned with the challenges of creating an emotional narrative that speaks to modern times.  Laurence considers himself more of an “emotionalist” or “feelist” rather than the typical classification of a contemporary realist.

Laurence’s work has been acquired by public and private collections including the London Borough of Camden in the UK, Museum of Fine Arts in Santa Fe, New Mexico,  Giorgio Armani, Gene Hackman  and NM Department of Cultural Affairs.  He has received awards such as the Robert Rauschenberg Award in 2004 and Walter Erlebacher Award in 1995.  He has shown his work abroad in Europe, Canada, and across the Untied States from coast to coast and continues to teach painting in academies across the nation and exhibit his work widely. 

For more information please contact us at info@skotiagallery.com or 505.820.7787 | 866.820.0113