Genieve Figgis

Genieve Figgis, born in Dublin in 1972, is an Irish painter whose singular style blends dark humor, decadence and strangeness. A graduate of the National College of Art and Design, she came to prominence on Instagram in the 2010s, where her work attracted the attention of painter Richard Prince. Her paintings, often done in very diluted acrylics, seem to melt or drip, hijacking the codes of 18th-century aristocratic painting. She revisits court scenes, portraits and elegant dinners with a grotesque, macabre touch. Her world, at once theatrical and spectral, explores vanity, luxury and appearances with a highly contemporary sense of derision. Figgis now exhibits in major galleries in New York, London and Tokyo.