Alexander Newley

Alexander Newley is a motivational teacher and lecturer on the themes and practice of art, creativity and spirituality, with particular reference to how they overlap and nurture each other. Newley gives public lectures, residencies and masterclasses that explore the intersections of portraiture, creativity and spiritual life, and he speaks frequently about growing up in Hollywood and the effects of narcissism on childhood development.

Newley has been a frequent lecturer, author, and artist-in-residence, presenting at literary festivals, universities, cultural institutions, and schools across the UK, Europe, and the United States. Highlights include appearances at the Oxford Literary Festival, Ilkley Literature Festival, Stratford Literary Festival, and Queens Park Book Festival, as well as book launches and talks for "Unaccompanied Minor," "Hollywood Childhood," and "Hallelujah Human." He also led artist-in-residence masterclasses at The Society of the Four Arts in Palm Beach and participated in Andrea Zafirakou's Air Project educational residencies in London schools. More recently, he has presented exhibitions and lectures for Divining The Human in Serbia, Austria, and the United States, including at the Salzburg Easter Festival in 2024.

Career highlights include the portrait of Sir Nigel Hawthorne as George III commissioned by the National Theatre in London, which was featured as the promotional image for the play on its U.S. tour; a portrait of Gore Vidal, acquired for the permanent collection of the National Portrait Gallery at the Smithsonian in Washington, D.C.; portraits of Billy Wilder and Oliver Stone; a portrait of Dominick Dunne, featured on the cover of Dunne’s novel about the O. J. Simpson trial; a portrait of Stephen Berkoff, featured on the cover of Berkoff’s collected plays; a portrait of John Barry; a portrait of Christopher Reeve, acquired for the permanent collection of the National Portrait Gallery at the Smithsonian in Washington, D.C.; a portrait head of Abraham Lincoln, acquired for the permanent collection of the Lincoln Heritage Museum in Lincoln, Illinois; a portrait of William Goldman; a portrait of Ed Ruscha; a portrait of Lord Jeffrey Archer; a portrait of Sir David Suchet, acquired for the permanent collection of the Garrick Club, London; portraits of Dame Judi Dench, Sir Derek Jacobi and Sir Kenneth Branagh for the Garrick Theatre, London; and a portrait of Anthony Newley as Ebenezer Scrooge acquired for the permanent collection of the Victoria and Albert Museum, London.

Newley has exhibited widely throughout the United Kingdom, Europe, and the United States since the 1990s. His work has been shown at venues including The Halcyon and St. Martin-in-the-Fields in London, Chateau Marmont and the Pacific Design Center in Los Angeles, Wally Findlay Gallery in Palm Beach, and Galerie Nikola Radosevic in Belgrade. Recent projects include London, Sacred City, Divining The Human, Hallelujah Human, and the 2024 Salzburg Easter Festival launch of his book "Divining The Human."Newley is also the author of the memoir "Unaccompanied Minor."

Corporate clients include Windsor and Newton Art Materials and Faber and Faber Books.

Events of note include "Portraits in Character," an exhibition of portraits of leading actors and actresses in a season of plays at The Garrick Theatre, London, curated and directed by Sir Kenneth Branagh, followed by a black-tie auction of the paintings at St. Martin-in-the-Fields to benefit The Connection, a homeless charity, which raised more than £100,000.

Selected articles and reviews have appeared in Interview Magazine, Vanity Fair, Tatler, The Times, The Los Angeles Times, The Palm Beach Post, The Jewish Chronicle, Artists and Illustrators, The Independent, The Evening Standard, The Daily Mail and The Daily Telegraph Magazine.

Selected collectors include Billy Wilder, Oliver Stone, Dame Emma Thompson, Dame Judi Dench, Sir Nigel Hawthorne and Lord Jeffrey Archer. Selected museum collections include the Garrick Club, London; the Smithsonian, Washington, D.C.; the Victoria and Albert Museum, London; and the Lincoln Heritage Museum, Illinois, U.S.