Gregory Gillespie

Forum Gallery is pleased to present an exhibition celebrating the art and life of American artist Gregory Gillespie (1936-2000). Gregory Gillespie painted memorable self-portraits, haunting fantasy landscapes, disturbingly surreal genre scenes and monumental, dimensional paintings, incorporating astonishing trompe l’oeil illusions and imaginary themes. His unerring eye for detail, masterful technique and uncompromising independence combined in deeply personal, often hallucinatory visions of the world. Impossible to categorize, Gregory Gillespie captivated diverse and devoted collectors, critics and curators. Gillespie’s first New York exhibition was at Forum Gallery in 1966. The 30-year-old artist was then at the American Academy in Rome on a Fulbright grant, followed by three Chester Dale fellowships. At age forty, Gillespie burst into the national spotlight with a retrospective exhibition at the Joseph H. Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden in 1977. Forty solo museum and gallery exhibitions followed. He was shown regularly by the Whitney Museum of American Art, in International exhibitions of American contemporary Art, and a second retrospective, A Unique American Vision, organized by the Georgia Museum of Art traveled to four more diverse institutions in 1999. Now, twenty-five years after his untimely death by suicide in 2000, Gregory Gillespie’s complex, psychologically charged paintings, propelled by his visual anarchy and consummate skill, are as fresh and compelling as they were during his lifetime. A feature length film documentary, The Painted Life of Gregory Gillespie, directed by Evan Goodchild, made its European Premiere at Cannes International Film Week Festival in May 2025 where the film won “Best Film Audience Award.” This past July, the film won “Best Feature Documentary Film” at the Doc.Boston Documentary Film Festival, and in August, the film had its New York Premiere at the Greenpoint Film Festival.

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