David Humphrey has received numerous awards for his paintings, drawings, installations and prints. These include a John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation Fellowship, two National Endowment for the Arts Fellowships, and two New York Council for the Arts Grants. His work has been exhibited both nationally and internationally with over 30 solo exhibitions in Canada, London, New York, California and Pittsburgh, among others. Humphrey’s work can be found in major public and private collections including the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Walker Art Center, the Carnegie Institute, the Denver Art Museum, and the Cleveland Center for Contemporary Art.

Humphrey received his BFA from the Maryland Institute, College of Art in Baltimore and his MA from New York University. He lives and works in New York City and is represented by Sikkema Jenkins & Co. Currently he is a Senior Critic at Yale School of Art. David Humphrey was selected as a top candidate for the Lamar Dodd Distinguished Chair position because of his record of research, and his recognition in the field as an artist, writer, critic and curator.

"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."