David Reninger

David Reninger was born in Chicago in 1960. His early exposure to the arts came through his father, who attended the Art Institute of Chicago on the GI Bill after World War II. Their home was filled with art books from around the world, and David’s earliest training came directly from painting alongside his father.

While his mother, the daughter of a Mississippi dirt farmer, brought strength and practicality to the household, his father was a dreamer who filled their home with murals, hand-built shelves, and creative projects that shaped David’s sense of possibility.

Reninger went on to formally study painting at Northern Illinois University under Joseph Wood, a student of Josef Albers at Yale. He later earned an M.F.A. from the University of Illinois, Urbana, where he studied with Sarah Krepp.

Since graduating, David has consistently exhibited his work in Chicago and across the region. His primary medium is painting, and his style blends realism and abstraction in an eclectic mix that reflects both his formal training and his personal explorations.