BIO

Geoff Farnsworth (b. 1968, Kimberley, B.C.) began his art training in Vancouver, B.C. at the Federation of Canadian Artists, Emily Carr, and Capilano College in the Graphic Design & Illustration Program.

He moved to New York City to train at the Art Students League from 1997 to 2002. Working from the live human model in several realist figurative classes at first, he then began to paint in the abstract painting studios, mostly under Frank O’Cain and William Scharf. In O’Cain’s class, Farnsworth began to be exposed to principles on the picture plane and unity with an emphasis on push/pull spatial theories.

In William Scharf’s classes, he was able to pursue his own aims in a figurative surrealist direction while being challenged and influenced in abstract directions from Scharf’s promptings. William Scharf, who had been the protégé, studio assistant and friend of Mark Rothko, brought a direct line of New York Abstract Expressionism into Farnsworth’s work. A spirit for process, experimentation, and colour exploration began to meld into the framework of his painted figures and settings.

After five years in New York City, Farnsworth chose to relocate to Toronto instead of moving back to North Vancouver. Drawn by the fact that his sister, also an artist, and his writer aunt already lived there, he moved north to pursue a continued studio practice. After five years in Toronto and then time spent living and working in Thunder Bay and Niagara Falls, Geoff has lived and worked in downtown St. Catharines since 2013.

His paintings have been shown in New York City, Washington DC, Minneapolis, Toronto, Vancouver, Winnipeg, Thunder Bay, Niagara Falls, Norway, Sweden, and Trinidad.

“My paintings explore a relationship between figurative and abstraction in order to meld unconscious probing and stylistic innovation with a meditative figural base.  It is important to me that the paintings work well as collections of shape, colour, texture, and energy, while also building a compelling image. Working with people and objects from my personal world, I focus on maintaining a balance between plan and accident, known and unknown, restraint and exuberance.  My figures look out as much into mindscape as landscape.”

-Geoff Farnsworth, 2023

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