Gary Faigin | Artistic Director
Gary Faigin , cofounder and artistic director of the Academy, trained at the Art Students League of New York and at the Ecole des Beaux Arts in Paris. While living in New York for fifteen years, he taught at the Art Students League, the National Academy of Design, the New York Academy Graduate School of Figurative Art, Parsons School of Design and the School of Visual Art.
In 1989, in partnership with his wife, architect Pamela Belyea, they founded Gage as a summer workshop program in Santa Fe. The vision has broadened over the past two decades into a nationally-respected Seattle art academy which the couple lead today in concert with a bold board of trustees, a dedicated staff and a talented corps of teaching artists.
As the author of the classic text, “The Artist's Complete Guide to Facial Expression”, Faigin has lectured to animators, plastic surgeons and forensic artists across the United States. His book is widely used in the animation industry; in fact, it is featured in the Shrek DVD interview with the lead animator. Through his work in facial expression, he has consulted with Boeing and the Computer Science department at UW.
For the past decade, Faigin has been the on-air art critic for KUOW giving insightful art reviews of shows in Seattle, New York and museums abroad. To read one of his thoughtful essays, please visit www.artdish.com.
Since 1995, Faigin and Belyea have been guiding annual art tours to the art capitols of the United States and Europe, including New York, Los Angeles, Paris, London, Venice, Florence, Amsterdam, Madrid, Barcelona, Vienna and Prague. Their combined expertise in Western art and architecture has made these custom tours extremely popular for both artists and art lovers. Two 2011 Academy Art Tours are designed for adults and families with a focus on the arts of Spain in context with European history. You can read more about them here.
Faigin has exhibited widely with solo exhibitions in Seattle and Santa Fe, including a retrospective of his work at Seattle’s Frye Art Museum and the Coos Museum of Art in Oregon. Faigin is represented by Linda Hodges Gallery in Seattle.
In 1998, under the leadership of Faigin & Belyea, the academy won the Seattle Mayor's Small Business Award; in 2007, Gage won the Governor's Arts Award for excellence in art education.
In 1989, in partnership with his wife, architect Pamela Belyea, they founded Gage as a summer workshop program in Santa Fe. The vision has broadened over the past two decades into a nationally-respected Seattle art academy which the couple lead today in concert with a bold board of trustees, a dedicated staff and a talented corps of teaching artists.
As the author of the classic text, “The Artist's Complete Guide to Facial Expression”, Faigin has lectured to animators, plastic surgeons and forensic artists across the United States. His book is widely used in the animation industry; in fact, it is featured in the Shrek DVD interview with the lead animator. Through his work in facial expression, he has consulted with Boeing and the Computer Science department at UW.
For the past decade, Faigin has been the on-air art critic for KUOW giving insightful art reviews of shows in Seattle, New York and museums abroad. To read one of his thoughtful essays, please visit www.artdish.com.
Since 1995, Faigin and Belyea have been guiding annual art tours to the art capitols of the United States and Europe, including New York, Los Angeles, Paris, London, Venice, Florence, Amsterdam, Madrid, Barcelona, Vienna and Prague. Their combined expertise in Western art and architecture has made these custom tours extremely popular for both artists and art lovers. Two 2011 Academy Art Tours are designed for adults and families with a focus on the arts of Spain in context with European history. You can read more about them here.
Faigin has exhibited widely with solo exhibitions in Seattle and Santa Fe, including a retrospective of his work at Seattle’s Frye Art Museum and the Coos Museum of Art in Oregon. Faigin is represented by Linda Hodges Gallery in Seattle.
In 1998, under the leadership of Faigin & Belyea, the academy won the Seattle Mayor's Small Business Award; in 2007, Gage won the Governor's Arts Award for excellence in art education.
Gary Faigin in front of Self Portrait