Biography
Humanity, with all its capabilities, talents, challenges and possibilities is at the centre of Duncan Regehr’s layered and masterful vision – Shakespearean depth of expression on a modern canvas.
Through the evocative and authoritative insights of his paintings and poetry we have come to know Regehr as an artist of great sensitivity. He possesses a rare ability to access, analyze and reveal the complexities of life, culture, history and myth. His beautifully painted canvases, sculptures and drawings are imbued with a deep, ageless quality. We sense the hand of an artist who invests his work with emotional intensity, exposing compelling images that are idiosyncratic and profoundly human in nature.
Born in Lethbridge, Alberta, Regehr has lived and maintained studios in Los Angeles, London, Madrid, Toronto and Victoria, Canada. As a child he was encouraged by his father, artist Peter Regehr, to develop his talents. He later studied painting with Dutch surrealist Henry Poesiat. His studies also included literature, psychology and sociology.
Regehr’s work in the visual, performing and literary arts has evolved to establish him as a prolific multi-media artist of international prominence. His paintings and written works are found in the Smithsonian Institute (US), the Jilin Collection (China), The Kunstallen (Copenhagen), Focus on the Masters Archives for the Getty Museum (US) and the Syllavethy Collection of Scotland (UK).
A renowned actor, Regehr began performing professionally at the age of sixteen. He has acted in and directed national and international productions for stage, film, radio and television.
His poetry, articles, essays and books are widely published. Regehr’s auto-monograph, The Dragon’s Eye, has been lauded by art critics and literary reviewers as a book of visual and poetic excellence. In 1996 he won the American Vision Award of Distinction in the Arts and was granted the RCA in the year 2000 by the Royal Canadian Academy of Art. In 2008 he received an Honorary Doctorate of Fine Arts from the University of Victoria.
Regehr’s typical method of working is to develop a series of paintings, drawings and writings that project a common theme or philosophy.
Employing various media in his work Regehr formulates oils to produce luminous colours with multiple layers of pigment. His figurative compositions encompass diverse and profound aspects of humanity. Often drawing upon subject matter of the subconscious, he creates images of an intensely personal nature, inviting reciprocal identification by the viewer.