About Genieve Figgis

Genieve Figgis (born 1972 in Dublin, Ireland) is an Irish contemporary painter celebrated for her distinctive reinterpretations of historical painting traditions through a surreal, contemporary lens. Her practice draws heavily on Rococo and Baroque aesthetics, transforming classical scenes of aristocratic leisure, romantic encounters, and pastoral landscapes into unsettling, dreamlike compositions. Working with vibrant, often acidic color palettes and loose, gestural brushwork, Figgis creates paintings that blur the boundaries between beauty and decay, elegance and grotesquerie.

Figgis's artworks are characterized by their deliberate distortion of historical imagery. Figures appear ghostly and elongated, architectural spaces dissolve into atmospheric washes of color, and familiar art-historical motifs are rendered strange and uncanny. This approach challenges conventional notions of beauty and power embedded in historical painting, inviting viewers to reconsider how we romanticize the past. Her paintings function as both homage and critique, celebrating the visual richness of historical art while exposing its underlying tensions.

Printmaking plays an important role in Figgis's practice. Her limited edition prints and signed editions translate her painterly investigations into highly collectible formats, capturing the chromatic intensity and surreal atmosphere of her larger works. These fine art prints are sought after by collectors worldwide for their ability to distill her unique vision of historical reimagining into accessible yet conceptually rich artworks.

Throughout her career, Figgis has remained committed to exploring the intersection of historical painting and contemporary sensibility. Her artworks continue to challenge viewers to reconsider art-historical narratives, securing her position as one of the most distinctive voices in contemporary painting whose works bridge past and present through surreal, color-saturated compositions.

Notable exhibitions

Genieve Figgis gained early institutional recognition with her participation in the L'Almanach Biennale at the Consortium Museum in Dijon in 2018, establishing her presence within the international contemporary art scene.

She was later featured in the group exhibition Desire: A Revision, from the 20th Century to the Digital Age at the Irish Museum of Modern Art in Dublin in 2019, and held a major solo exhibition titled Drama Party at M WOODS Museum in Beijing in 2023, showcasing her distinctive reinterpretations of historical painting traditions.

In 2024, she debuted new artworks at the Venice Biennale as part of a collateral exhibition at Palazzo Cavanis, marking her most high-profile biennial appearance to date. Her paintings and highly collectible limited edition prints continue to attract international attention for their surreal reimagining of Rococo and Baroque aesthetics.