Al Gury
July 17, 2024
Al Gury can paint anything: portraits and figures, floral still lifes, landscapes. Any subject in his hands shows the confidence and surety of an artist who’s been painting from a very young age. His oeuvre is vast, and yet he is still exploring. Al delights in the expressive possibilities of color and how it can be orchestrated in dynamic compositions.
Al Gury is the chairman of the Painting Department at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts. He was designated a master teacher by both the University of the Arts in Philadelphia and American Artist magazine. He received his BA in fine arts and humanities from Saint Louis University, a four-year Certificate in Painting from the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts (PAFA), and an MFA from the University of Delaware.
He is a recipient of the Cresson Traveling Fellowship and numerous grants and awards for painting and arts education. Al’s work is regularly shown by F.A.N. Gallery in Philadelphia. His paintings have also been exhibited at the National Academy of Design in New York, the Philadelphia Museum of Art, the U.S. Capitol in Washington, D.C., Washington and Lee University, the University of Pennsylvania, and galleries across the country.
Al is a contributing editor for Per Contra, an international journal of arts, literature and ideas, and the author of three books on painting and drawing.
Since 1972, Al has resided in Philadelphia, where he works to promote the arts and is a longtime volunteer and contributor to PAWS, the Philadelphia Animal Welfare Society.