Gregory de la Haba is an American interdisciplinary artist, writer, curator, and cultural producer.

Born and raised in New York City, he seamlessly integrates fine art and street culture with a foundation in traditional artistic research. A skilled painter with a pedagogical lineage that stretches back to Jacques-Louis David, de la Haba is an exemplary practitioner of fine art whose conceptual practice resists categorization. His work explores themes of addiction, masculinity, and ‘Duende’, a heightened state of emotion, expression, and authenticity derived from pure artistic expression. Through this lens, he unlocks his true self in art and life.

His creative journey is profoundly influenced by his life in a city he describes as an enduring source of inspiration. His work exudes a remarkable energy and depth of color, drawing from the legacy of celebrated masters such as Mark Rothko, whose influence has left an indelible mark on de la Haba’s approach to composition and emotional resonance. His chosen palette is often intense, dynamic, and, at times, unflinching in its boldness, evoking feelings of hope and vitality while simultaneously prompting viewers to reflect on optimism even in the face of uncertainty and disorder. Photography also plays a crucial role in his creative process. Drawing from his extensive archive, he integrates documentary-style photography into his canvases, using storied locations as backdrops that enrich his work with urban stories and social context. By mixing  photography and painting, de la Haba creates compositions that reflect the energy and pulse of the city, merging the ephemeral nature of street life with the permanence of fine art.

Since 2008, de la Haba has produced art-related ventures through his creative platform Bodega de la Haba. Notable projects include hosting literary events with Pulitzer Prize-winning poet Franz Wright, curating a survey of significant works by the celebrated artist Judy Rifka at Pulpo Gallery in Murnau am Staffelsee in Germany, and producing and narrating Terrence Browne’s Irish art history musical “Hazel - Made In Belfast” which premiered at Carnegie Hall.

In 2009, de la Haba was the Artist-in-Residence at ‘Jack the Pelican Presents’, where he firmly cemented his notoriety with a provocative body of work.

In October 2024, de la Haba won the First Prize at the Durres International Biennale in Albania.

A cum laude graduate of Harvard University, de la Haba has written on a number of artists including Billy the Artist, Richie Culver, Marcus Jansen, Cristina BanBan, Oscar Murillo, Al Diaz, California Locos (Dave Tourjé, Chaz Bojórquez, John Van Hamersveld, Norton Wisdom and Gary Wong), Miya Ando, Andy Moses, Timothy Warren Williams, Lance De Los Reyes, Mel Bochner and many others. De la Haba's writings and artworks have been featured in many publications

including The New York Times, Southampton Review, Rizzoli’s Irish America, New York Arts Magazine, and Portray. A recent portrait article on de la Haba by Anthony Haden-Guest has just been published in L’Officiel, featuring works from his new “Locus of Being” series.

https://lofficiel.at/art-culture/everything-is-made-of-light/

De la Haba’s work has been exhibited internationally in numerous galleries and art shows.

Solo Shows:

·   Upcoming 2025-2027

A “Traveling Exhibition” across several countries in South America is planned for 2026/2027  

An exhibition is scheduled at Pildong Gallery, Seoul, South Korea, this September

·   2025

“Gregory de la Haba“, M-Art Center (8H Exhibition Hall), Seoul, South Korea - Ongoing

“Hamptons Fine Art Fair“, Dorian Grey Projects, Southampton, USA

Three paintings adorned the walls of Mbassy, a trendy new restaurant in Düsseldorf, Germany

“Palimpsestos: Everything Will Be Visible, Eventually”, Geuer & Geuer Art, Düsseldorf, Germany

·   2024  

“Take It Easy“, Luisa Catucci Gallery, Berlin, Germany

“The Durrës International Biennale of Contemporary Art (DIBoCA)” representing The National Pavilion   

  of the United States of America, Durrës, Albania

“Master Painter from New York”, Gouter Gallery, Seoul, South Korea

·   2023

“Light Tensions”, Kou Gallery - Curated by Massimo Scaringella , Roma, Italy

“Amplified Dimensions”, Marina Bastianello Gallery - Curated by Massimo Scaringella, Venice, Italy

“Invitational Exhibition”, Hangaram Art Museum, Seoul, South Korea

“Portals to New York”, TwoFortyThirty, New York, USA

·   2019

“Vertical Horizons/Horizontal Waves: Totem Poems”, Meta Gallery, Monaco

Selected Group Shows: 

·   Upcoming 2025-2026

“Venice Biennale”, Venice, Italy – April to November 2026

·   2025

“Sylt Art Fair”, Geuer & Geuer Art, Sylt, Germany – Ongoing (June 7-September 4)

“Daegu Art Fair International”, Daegu, South Korea

·   2024

“Dakar Biennale”, Dakar, Senegal 

 “Be Colourblind” with the Finnish artist Hannu Palosuo, Tehdassaari, Nokia, Finland

“Art on Paper New York” Art Fair, New York, USA

“Sylt Art Fair”, Geuer & Geuer Art, Sylt, Germany

“4-Person Battle”, Gouter Gallery, Seoul, South Korea

“In Bloom” Oscar Molina Gallery and Yubal Màrquez Fleites Contemporary & Fine Art, Southampton, USA

“Contro Corrente”, Fondation Léopold Sédar Senghor, Dakar, Senegal

·   2023

“The Others” Art Fair, Torino, Italy

“Larnaca Biennale: Home Away From Home”, Larnaca, Cyprus

“Simbolismi della Visione”, Rome Art Week - Curated by Luisa Catucci & Massimo Scaringella, Rome, Italy

“I Sing The Body Electric”, Jane’s Room - Curated by Raul Zamudio, New York, USA

“Inaugural Group Show”, 484 Gallery - Curated by Dalton Portella, Montauk, USA

“Summer Of Love”, Yubal Màrquez Fleites Contemporary & Fine Art, Southampton, USA

·   2022

“Art & Automobiles” First City Project Collective, Glen Cove, USA

“Rawthentic”, Brooklyn Art Haus, New York, USA

“Sylt Art Fair”, Geuer & Geuer Art, Sylt, Germany

·   2021

“Thinking Out Loud”, Pulpo Gallery - Curated by Katerina & Nico Zeifang, Murnau Am Staffelsee, Germany

“A Daze of Roses”, Mizuma & Kips Gallery, New York, USA

·   2020

“Sylt Art Fair”, Geuer & Geuer Art, Sylt, Germany

“QiPO Art Fair”, Mexico City, Mexico

These three paintings are part of a new series by de la Haba titled “Locus of Being”, which he began in 2025. This body of work continues the themes explored in his earlier series, “Light Tensions”, which was initiated a few years ago and featured in his recent solo exhibition at Geuer & Geuer Art in Düsseldorf, as well as in previous shows in Seoul, Rome, and Venice.

The “Locus of Being” series features a combination of expressive and structural elements that utilize a quantum character to achieve a certain splendor. They take recognizable effects from formal plateaus of past production yet extend them into a more elegantly complex composition. The notion of a quantum reality infuses them with profound significance. De la Haba takes the humble silhouette and places an ambivalent form dissembling before forming into something real —like an echo of a past event forever felt; like light refracted from distant stars; or a ripple in a pond following the same gravitational force that causes tsunamis, and places it at the service of painterly beauty. The spectator is placed in direct contact with an event that seems to have seemingly infinite potential. Whether it’s judged formally or metaphorically, it manifests archetypally to affect us in ways we have yet to comprehend. What we perceive in each image is kaleidoscopic, rendering into multiple meanings that do not allow facile deciphering. We enter the code of de la Haba’s vision, separated from reality by the liminality of vision. We become part of the locus, as our beings reflect the future of the work.