About the Artist — Jim Gigurtsis

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About Jim Gigurtsis

I paint figures that will not give themselves away. The human form exposed through distortion and the accidents of paint. These are not illustrations of what suffering looks like but what it feels like to live with it.

Working in oil on canvas, I paint without knowing the outcome. I work until the image ambushes me, before I get a chance to think about what I am looking at. That moment is my measure and I want it to be the viewer's too.

Close-up, the paint is present and unapologetic. Impasto, broad gesture and multiple layers. If you step back the figure emerges only to dissolve again

Some portraits take the form of triptychs, three studies of the same person, no single truth. The format comes from religious altarpieces, given here to ordinary people. Each stands on its own. The left turns inward, the middle faces forward and the right turns inward, each aware of the other.

The large figurative works go in two directions. One borrows sacred imagery to confront migration, war, and persecution. The other deals with perception and bias, what others decide you are, and the resistance to conform.

The work is not asking to be admired, it has no fixed meaning. What you read in it is your own.

Jim Gigurtsis was born in Greece. He lived and worked in London for many years, painting and exhibiting alongside a full working life. He attended a summer programme at the Slade School of Fine Art, UCL, and worked as a part-time curator at the Financial Conduct Authority, London, from 2012 to 2016. He moved to Florida in 2016 and is based in Seminole, Pinellas County.

His work is held in private and public collections in the UK, Ireland, Norway, Greece, Canada, and the United States. He has exhibited internationally across the UK and the United States. Awards include Best of Show, Pinellas County (2022), Emerging Artist Grant from Creative Pinellas (2019), and 1st Place at South Pasadena Art Spring (2019).

His most recent exhibition, Materiality, is a two-person show with ceramist Mike Cannata at the Gamble Family Gallery, Dunedin Fine Art Center, Pinellas County, through August 16, 2026.

He has taught oil and acrylic painting at Morean Arts Center and privately, and returns to Morean Arts Center in November 2026.