New York artist David Humphrey will give a public lecture at 7:30 p.m. Thursday, Oct. 31, in Room 116 of Art Building West.

Humphrey grew up in Pittsburgh, Pa., and lives and works in New York City. He received a Bachelor of Fine Arts from Maryland Institute, College of Art in 1977, and a Master of Arts from New York University in 1980. He is a senior critic at the Yale School of Art. An anthology of his art writing, Blind Handshake, was published by Periscope Publishing in 2010.

Humphrey's work is in the permanent collections of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Walker Art Center, the Carnegie Institute, and the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, among others. He has received many awards for his work, including the Rome Prize, a Guggenheim Fellowship, and two National Endowment for the Arts Fellowships. He is represented by the Fredericks & Freiser Gallery, N.Y.

Humphrey says of his work: “My paintings are frequently depictions of depictions. I will copy an amateur painting, for instance, the way a band might cover a song written by someone else, or the way a singer renders an old chestnut. I try to get inside the other person’s point of view to stretch my own. Sometimes the pre-existing image, like an eccentrically generic landscape, will provide a location for one of my paintings. Sometimes a sad clown or beloved pet painting will provide the protagonist.

“My handmade renditions, though, take a lot of liberties with the originals. I will add characters or exaggerate and mutate elements. But the work will evolve from contact with the original and will carry iconographic elements, and sometimes feelings, into the finished state.”

Individuals with disabilities are encouraged to attend all UI-sponsored events. If you are a person with a disability who requires a reasonable accommodation in order to attend this lecture, call the School of Art and Art History in advance at 319-335-1376.