ABOUT THE ARTIST

Gavin Glakas grew up in Bethesda, Maryland and started drawing about the time he started walking. He studied at Washington University in St. Louis and the Slade School of Fine Art in London. Following graduation, he spent a year in Athens, Greece, working as an illustrator.

After returning to the U.S., Glakas spent a year and a half working on Capitol Hill as a Senate staffer. He had planned to go to law school but, after an eight-month illness culminating in the removal of a tumor from his lung at the age of 24, decided to pursue his lifelong ambition of a career as an artist.

Glakas began showing his work in galleries almost immediately and has won numerous honors for his artwork, including awards from the Portrait Society of America and the Butler Institute of American Art. His paintings have been featured on NBC News and in American Art Collector, International Artist, Art Business News, Elan and The Strand magazines and exhibited at museums and galleries throughout the country. 

Glakas’ paintings hang in the United States Capitol, the House of Representatives’ Armed Forces Committee, Georgetown University, The Society of the Four Arts in Palm Beach and the Ratner Museum in Bethesda, as well as numerous private collections.

The artist is represented by Principle Gallery in Alexandria, VA and Charleston, SC. He paints full-time and teaches figure painting and drawing at the Yellow Barn Studio in Glen Echo, MD, as well as workshops in Tuscany and Palm Beach.