Italian American Museum
Presents
Flora Interpretations An Exhibition
Featuring Photo Impressionistic Murals and Abstract Studies on Canvas by Michael DeSiano
Exhibition: January 28th – February 26th, 2017
The artist presentation and discussion will be held on: Thursday, February 16th at 6:30 P.M.
Italian American Museum
Italian American Museum
155 Mulberry Street
New York, NY 10013
Museum Hours of Operation:
Friday, Saturday, Sunday, 12 NOON to 6:00 PM
The widely exhibited Artist, Michael DeSiano presents a solo exhibition that celebrates the beauty, color and essence of flora and flowers with impressionistic and abstract photographic works on canvas. With photographs taken in Italy and the United States he has created works which both please and absorb the viewer. The opening reception for this exhibit is scheduled for Friday, January 27th, 6:30 P.M. in the Italian American Museum at 155 Mulberry Street. A presentation by the artist and discussion of the works will be held in the Museum on Thursday, February 16th at 6:30 P.M. “Flora Interpretations” will be on exhibit from Saturday, January 28 through Sunday, February 26 in the Museum’s gallery. Regular museum hours are from noon to 6 PM on Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays. Suggested museum admission is $10.
Biography:
Michael DeSiano’s art concentrates on natural and cultivated flora while working with photography, mixed media and painting. He has shown in New York City, and galleries the United States. An advocate and writer on the visual arts, he has published in journals, lectured and presented workshops throughout the United States. He is the author of Principles and Elements of Art and Design and the forthcoming ACT: Art Creativity and Thinking.
Michael posts his art works and publishes the Flora/Art Blog on social media, with accounts on Instagram, Facebook, Pinterest, G+, Behance, Flickr, Reddit, Tumblr, and Blogger. His portfolio is presented on the michaeldesiano.com website, and selected portfolios are posted on Deviant Art, 500px, FineArtsAmerica, SaatchiArt, Vango and Pictorem. On YouTube, the vignette videos objectively document his observations, experiences and encounters, mostly in NYC.
Michael DeSiano was born in New York City and grew up in mythic Brooklyn, amid people of great diversity and backgrounds striving to move forward in America. Michael came late to his parents, Rose and Sal. An only child, and first born male into a traditional Italian American extended family, he received the kind of attention that supported his success. For his fifth birthday, his beloved Aunt Madeline gave him an Erector Set. His curiosity and imagination for three-dimensional design and sculpture became a lifetime interest.
His father studied chemistry at NYU to aid his “second job” a small perfume business. Scents of exotic flowers filled the home and became a daily conversation. Michael won art and craft awards in grade school. He was encouraged to pursue art by his teachers. But he followed the more traditional route of mechanical engineering, because his parents, first generation Italian Americans and children of the depression, wanted to ensure he had a financially secure profession.
He earned an engineering degree from Brooklyn Polytechnic University. However, during a backpacking trip in Italy he realized the need to pursue art. He attended the School for American Crafts at R.I.T. and the Brooklyn Museum Art School. Confident that art was the career to follow, he earned a Master’s degree from NYU. Enthralled by both the practice and theory of art making, he completed a Ph.D. in Creative Arts from N.Y.U. After marrying, he and his wife Pat bought a vacant candy store in Brooklyn. With their apartment, above, Michael began creating painted constructions and sculpture in his first-floor storefront studio. Their children, Salvatore and Rose followed their father’s interests, Sal an engineer for Google and Rose a Professor of digital photography.
With the help of Pat, Michael supported himself through teaching art on the college and graduate level. He could not deny himself the satisfaction of teaching in some of the best art schools in the NYC, including Pratt Institute, New York University and Queens College. He taught a broad range of subjects: painting, sculpture, two and three-dimensional design, art history, and later specialized in the creative process and visual thinking.
In the 1980’s, DeSiano began exhibiting consistently in commercial, university, public and cooperative galleries. His first one-person exhibit at the Just Above Midtown Gallery, New York, received excellent reviews. This exhibition was followed by the Hansen Gallery on 57th St. in NYC. He currently exhibits with the Brooklyn Waterfront Artist Coalition and other venues.
In the 1990’s he took time out from art making to concentrate on art theory and practice through university teaching. Researching, teaching and lecturing on art processes, aesthetics and criticism, complemented by studio teaching, he began to follow a new path for art making. During this period, he also authored a book on the Principles and Elements of Art and Design, which is widely used and still in print.
Michael DeSiano has led workshops, lectured and given presentations throughout the United States for professional artists and art educators. His popular online courses in art, creativity and visual thinking are the basis for the forth coming book, ACT – Art Creativity and Thinking, to be published this spring. This innovative e-book provides a systematic, neuropsychological-based approach to creative art making and thinking. The book makes use of quotes of master artists, illustrated with master art works and accompanied by exercises designed to stimulate, inspire, inform and advance.
After almost a decade of art research, exploration and teaching DeSiano has returned to art making. During the years of concentrated academics and theory DeSiano wanted to take time away from art making to rejuvenate, rediscover and redirect my sources of inspiration and focus. Most of all he concluded that central goal in making art for inspiration and meditation could be better served with a change of media.
Artist Statement:
In the New Millennium, my art making is energized by several masters for inspiration, theory processes, and working style. The analytical eye of Monet provides an entry into art as more than verisimilitude, a first step in abstraction and color study. Monet’s late works set the stage for a concentration on flora, and local and constructed gardens for subject matter. Another master of great import is Matisse who was hindered by physical limitations later in life. He turned to easily constructed mural scale collage with exuberant color. Taking the lead given by Monet and Matisse, I adopted art photography and flora, especially flowers of brilliant color. I am also inspired by Picasso who offered not only an example of outstanding creativity in his later years, but a Spartan and regimented lifestyle for conserving energy and focusing on making art in several media.
Always a photographer, my expertise resided in documentation and presentation of art for portfolio, lectures and teaching. In the new millennium, I employ a camera for expressive purposes rather than documentation and realism. Already having camera skills, I delight in combining a love for color and painting with photography.
I explore and respond to experimentation while using traditional and new technologies. My work uses innovations and experimentation, it also harkens back to historic art traditions, including impressionism, expressionism and abstraction.
I rely on an excellent understanding and deep appreciation for art history and aesthetics. My expressive and inspirational imagery builds on past masterworks while embracing traditional, modern and contemporary art making. I believe that modern art, particularly impressionism, expressionism and abstraction and advances in technology have created an entirely new mode of creating, made obtainable through photography.
My techniques are highly illuminating and expressive. My original photos are reworked with great expression, to bring forward visual information and experiences beyond what the eye can normally see. The processes and techniques combine the craft of photography with the creativity of a painter.
I believe my works could not have been seen before, they are created with knowledge and inspiration from the past and recent technology. I work in a realm where new technology and expressive modes are brought together for the first time.
Michael DeSiano
Italian American Museum
Italian American Museum
155 Mulberry Street
New York, NY 10013
Tel.: 212.965.9000
Fax: 212.965.9004
or email info@ItalianAmericanMuseum.org
