About

Gregory Jos. de la Haba

de la Haba in his studio, Boston, 1993

The impetus for "Between Nothingness and Paradise" was touched off many years ago, when Queens-based artist Gregory Jos. de la Haba was a boy.  Gambling, then, began to reveal itself in his blood: stories of a wealthy Spanish grandfather who opened the first casinos in Puerto Rico; alternately, the poor Irish grandfather whose ways and means he came to know intimately as they walked to the local OTB five days a week.  As Gregory matured, his life took on a quixotic quality distinctly his own—betting the longshot at casinos, handicapping ponies at the race track, with the impractical, more often than not, panning out flawlessly.  Success in hand, de la Haba soon turned horse owner, and eventually found himself in the Saratoga winner’s circle.  All the while, there was his art, financed, inspired, albeit sometimes occluded by, the life of a gambling man.  Now, emerging at the forefront of successive artistic accomplishments, de la Haba’s upcoming “Between Nothingness” finally—and boldly—marries both worlds.

The artist painting his wife Teresa, New York, 1996

While “Between Nothingness” is both genre-defying and deeply social, de la Haba has long been recognized as an exemplary practitioner of the more traditional asthetics of fine art; accolades and honors have come regionally and internationally and have firmly established the artist as a brilliant draftsman who proceeds with an acute conceptual edge.  A cum laude graduate of Harvard University, as well as a star pupil at the Museum School of Fine Arts in Boston, MA; La Universidad del Sacrado Corazon in Santurce, PR; and Artes Plasticas in San Juan, PR, de la Haba noteably studied the art of picture-making under the tutelage of Paul Ingbretson.(This particular type of study has been passed from master to pupil since its inception in 18th Century France, beginning with the renowned Neoclassicist Jacques Louis David.)

    
de la Haba received the Juror’s Choice for Technical Excellence Award at the Copley Society in 1992, won third prize at the Copley Society in 1993, and was awarded two scholarships to the New York Academy of Art in 1994, including the coveted Posey Foundation Scholarship.  Choosing a professional sojourn over studio work in New York, de la Haba traveled extensively throughout South America, Europe, and the Middle East.  Studying the Old Masters and working from life in nudes and portraits, these travels solidified de la Haba’s career as a figurative artist.  Upon his return, de la Haba was quickly commissioned by New York City purveyor of pop culture Matthew Maher, proprietor of the internationally celebrated McSorley’s Old Ale House.  The portrait of Mr. Maher’s daughter Teresa would prove to be the most important of the artist’s career; Teresa and de la Haba married in 1998. 

Other noteworthy commissions include pieces for concert pianist and Steinway artist Rosa Antonelli; world-famous racing jockey John Velazquez; and a 30’ x 16’ ceiling mural of Bacchanalia for John Tunney III (nephew of pugilist Gene Tunney), now prominently displayed amid the real life revelries of Caesar’s Palace, Atlantic City.In a unique gesture of civic enterprise and creative acumen, de la Haba unveiled “The Billboard Series” in September 2003 at 48 Wall Street, a suite of 5’ x 9’ and larger black and white charcoal drawings of post-9/11 New York City.  With the backing of city councilman Allen J. Gerson and a comprehensive benefit committee, and under the auspices of corporate sponsorship as part the artist’s pioneering post-9/11 vision of “art as commerce,” de la Haba’s billboards rallied for a culture and a city that could, indeed, rise from the ashes.  The drawing “New York, New York!” featured advertisements purchased by Asics, Boars Head, Cushman & Wakefield, Nat Sherman, and CB Richard Ellis, to name a few.  This particular work took on a truly New York scale as it was transformed into a 50’ x 60’ billboard and mounted at 47th Street and Broadway, a space donated for one month by ClearChannel.  Benefiting leading youth development non-profit Art Start, the show’s Opening saw attendance of over 500, with 2,000 more visitors across the next three days.In February 2003, de la Haba took his place beside the likes of Joseph Micthell and John Sloan as he revealed “The McSorley’s Sketchbook,” a series of prints inspired by the landmark locale near to his family’s heart.

The “Sketchbook” garnered de la Haba his first solo New York gallery show at Big Cat Gallery.  Another show for the sketches came at NYU’s Glucksman Ireland House.  Fetching record attendance for the venue, the show’s Opening saw appearances by director-writer Tim Van Patten and Pulitzer Prize-winning author Frank McCourt, who wrote the catalog’s introduction.  Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Dennis Dugan went on to profile the artist in response to the “Sketchbook’s” success.  In March 2004, de la Haba enjoyed two print exhibitions at John Allan’s men’s salons (uptown and downtown), as well as his first museum acquisition as the New York Historical Society acquired “Exodus,” a piece from the “Billboard Series,” for its permanent collection.  June 2004, brought the opening of “Montauk: A Journal,” de la Haba’s landscape study of Montauk Point, the famous “End” of Long Island, NY, at the Montauk Historical Society.  The artist went on to donate 25% of the proceeds to the society.  Upcoming in fall 2005, Rizzoli Books will publish Irish America, which includes many of the artist's images and critical text on his work.

A true patron of the arts as well as a practitioner, de la Haba donates each year to the MDA, and established the Carlos Collazo Scholarship at Artes Plasticas in San Juan, PR, in honor of the artist who died of AIDS in 1989.