white redhead #2 Print

Jeff Gompertz is an American contemporary visual artist who currently lives and works in Bangkok Thailand. Early life and education: Gompertz grew up in the Washington Heights-Inwood section of Manhattan; an enclave of German Jewish immigrants whom, as his family, had fled Nazi Germany before, during or after the war. He studied music and art equally prior to University. He received his (B.F.A) from Cooper Union (1979) where he studied alongside classmates Donald Baechler and Curtis Anderson, and had several influential professors including Louise Bourgeois, Hans Haake and Christopher Wilmarth. Gompertz met many of his contemporaries at downtown nightclubs such as Tier 3 and the Mudd Club. After University he worked in an art studio building on East 2nd st. and continued to live and work in the lower East Village before moving to the Williamsburg neighborhood of Bklyn in 1990. Work: The East Village art scene in the early 1980s had a major impact on the work of Gompertz, where a hyper-urban mix of graffiti, hip hop, and contemporary art was taking place. Galleries such as Pat Hearn and Patty Astors Fun Gallery were opening alongside dive bars and night clubs. These influences can be seen reflected in the use of spray paint and textual ‘scrawl’ appearing in his works of that period. Happenings like the Times square show, the Monumental show, the Real estate show and the experimental Squat Theatre were also of impor- tance in his artistic development. He attended the loft parties of Edit DeAk, a major influencer of the scene and was published in her *Art Random series along with many of these contemporaries notably; James Brown, Ashley Bickerton, James Nares, Ross Bleckner, and George Condo. Career: The first public exhibitions of his work took place in New York City - Tribeca at Harm Bouckaert and various Soho galleries from 1981 to 1983 including the Drawing Center. He began working with American art dealer Annie Plumb, and in 1984 he had his first shows with that Gallery. Soon after he began working with Blum Helman Gallery and had his first exhibition with that gallery in 1985. Style: Gompertz’s Paintings show an influence of contemporaries Julian Schnabel, Ross Bleckner and Gary Stephan. The term figurative abstraction is the common description for the paintings of contemporaries produced at this time period.