Dennis Campay

Dennis Campay was born in 1950 in Portsmouth, Virginia. He began his artistic career at the age of 37. Campay received his Bachelor of Fine Arts from the Atlanta College of Art at age 42. Considered to be one of the most classic visual storytellers, Campay invites the viewer into his richly colored worlds of reverie, reality, intimacy and spiritual journey.

Campay takes a question or observation and connects those principals and theories with emblems, symbols and signs, creating the imagery represented in many of his architectural compositions. This philosophy, combined with his passion for drawing, which he describes himself as “a central component of [his] work and creative process”, enables him to construct pictures that embody proportion, harmony, and spirituality. His work weaves a tapestry of stories, that leaves much for the viewer to feel and reflect upon. Campay has participated in numerous solo and group shows, throughout his nearly four-decade career, and is the recipient of a plethora of awards. 

“Dennis Campay is a true original, whose gift pulled him out of his travails to where he is today; the most consistently exciting painter in the south, one of the best Americans in years. He went through an unending apprenticeship such as no one does today, yet none of those lessons were lost or useless. His age-old themes have never been more urgently felt; this is why his paintings are new...”  John T. Spike, Florence, Italy, Art Historian, Curator, Author.