David Lenz

Who is David Lenz?

David Lenz is an American portrait painter.

Since 1990 Lenz has painted intimate and highly realistic portraits of unsung Americans. Lenz is best known perhaps for winning the grand prize in the 2006 Outwin Boochever Portrait Competition. Organized by the National Portrait Gallery, part of the Smithsonian Institution, this inaugural competition attracted more than 4,000 entries from across the country. The resulting exhibition of 51 artists’ works were shown at the National Portrait Gallery from June 23, 2006 to February 19, 2007.

Lenz’s winning entry, an oil painting entitled Sam and the Perfect World depicts his son Sam, who has Down syndrome, amidst an idealized rural Wisconsin landscape.