Greg Calibey

About

Gregory Calibey was born in 1959 in Connecticut. A true Renaissance talent, he was the recipient of three national awards in painting before finishing his secondary education. Calibey studied fine art at Wesleyan University and at the University of North Carolina, where he worked with his mentor Marvin Saltzman. After completing his courses, he experimented with a number of artistic disciplines including extensive design work in the areas of architecture and furniture. He ventured into illustration and even television production before coming to the conclusion that painting and sculpting would be his life's creative pursuit. He cites among his influences Degas, Sargent and Rodin.

Classically handled, his figures are painterly, often with porcelain colouring and delicate features. Yet Calibey defines the space around them with sweeping swathes of dense and layered colour. Shapes are often flattened against the plane of the painting and his use of negative space is an active and dynamic element, rather than a counterbalance to the subject of a composition. Through a more non- traditional exploration of space and form he has lost none of the lyrical quality that is so admired in his work. So in the end perhaps it is the visual intelligence which he brings to his art that makes Calibey's paintings so thought provoking.