GARY CAMPBELL

I was born in London, England, in the year of 1961, to the lovely couple, Calvin and Etta Campbell. A few years later, I was sent to live with an aunt in Kingston, Jamaica. Along with one of my younger sisters, we lived with this aunt for two years and then returned to London, where my parents had bought a house and had a second daughter.The whole family, at the time, immigrated to the United States in 1969 a year after the riots. I spent my first summer watching kids playing in the streets of harlem. We stayed with my step-grandmother, while the parental units found suitable livng accommodations for us in Washington D.C.Attended public school from second grade through high school in D.C. From there, I moved to Los Angeles and attended the University of Southern, where I spent ten years in pursuit of my childhood dream to become an architect.During this time II worked for the university and did freelance work for the, then young Frank Gerhy, and other local architects. Then I fell in love and followed my heart to Paris, in 1989, where I lived happily for 4 ½ years. In Paris I discovered another way to look at and hear the world around me. I decided to try painting and discovered a new passion.One of my first critiques from a gallery owner in Paris, I was told,” keep painting and come back in ten years or die young.”I took this to be a very promising review. I managed to have on solo show in Paris and sold some pieces to private collectors. I spent the last year and a half of my 6yrs in Paris heartbroken and drunk. Learned a little more about suffering.Returned to the U.S. in 1996. After a year in the South Florida area, working for art galleries and a brief stint in Los Angeles again, I moved to New York, where I’ve lived and created for the past eight years.