Gregory de la Haba
Apart from being an exceptionally skilled painter with a pedagogical lineage that stretches back to the great Neoclassicist Jacques-Louis David, de la Haba is a gambler in more ways than one. Hosting casino nights in his loft where a 14' craps table takes center stage the artist spent more than 10 years at Belmont and Saratoga racetracks handicapping the ponies-and winning, to the point where he became horse owner, stepping into the winner's circle on more than one occasion (hence the horse iconography in his work).
Selected solo and group exhibitions by de la Haba include:"SWELL" Nyehaus Gallery, NYC, "Equus Maximus" Jack the Pelican Presents, Brooklyn; "Queens International 4" Queens Museum; Lange Nacht der Museen, Museum of Contemporary Trash Art, Berlin; Salzburg Arts festival, Austria,"Dawn of a New Era" New York Studio Gallery, "Surfboards and Skateboards" World Erotic Art Museum, Miami; Scope Art Show 2010, Miami; "The Virtue Of Vice" White Box, NYC; Tacheles, Berlin and Salzach Biennale, Austria.
De la Haba created the murals for Sean MacPherson's Roger Room in LA, Temple Bar in Caesar's Palace, Atlantic City and most recently for Armin Armiri's Mister H. inside the new Mondrian Hotel (Morgans Hotel Group) in Chinatown.
A cum laude graduate of Harvard University de la Haba's writings and artworks have been published in numerous publications including the Southampton Review, Rizzoli's Irish America and New York Arts magazine as well as a video interview with Jean Wainwright for The Art Newspaper; he is featured in the latest documentary by notable Hollywood director Michael Knowles 'Gambling In Art, A Story of Six New York Artists Who've Gone All In' and in May of 2011 de la Haba collaborated with award winning playwright Mike Gorman on a 'dramatic performance and art installation' at the venerable La MaMa theater in New York's East Village.
C urrently working with the author/surfer/memoirist Allan Weisbecker (In Search of Captain Zero, Cosmic Banditos) as an executive producer on his film Water Time, Surf Travel Diary of a Madman. And in 2011 launched his nom de guerre Bodega de la Haba to cater his ever expanding appetite in all things creative.