Curt Labitzke

Curt Labitzke was born in New York in 1958, his father an illustrator and his mother a quilt-maker. He received his Masters of Fine Arts from the University of Notre Dame in 1984 with a concentration in Painting, Printmaking and Drawing. Upon completion of his degree he joined the Studio Art faculty at the University of Washington, Seattle. Curt is currently the Chair of the Printmaking and Interdisciplinary Visual Arts Programs and regularly teaches in the School of Art’s study abroad program in Rome and Florence, Italy. His work is influenced by his extensive travels and reflects a passion for the sensuous quality of Etruscan art, the beauty of the Renaissance, the poetic storytelling of the Greeks and the brut directness of the German Expressionists. The intaglio prints, often built of iconic figures inspired by ancient Greek and Roman portrait busts, peer from their ambiguous space seeking empathy as they passionately engage the viewer.