Gallery North

Fred Badalamenti

BIOGRAPHY

The artist is a resident of East Setauket and is listed in Marquis Who’s Who in America and Who’s Who in the East. He began as a secondary school art teacher in Newburgh and Deer Park before embarking on his lifetime career in college art teaching and administration. An award of a graduate art fellowship at Brooklyn College in 1965 led directly to a permanent art faculty position. In 1972 he was named as Deputy Chairman of the Art Department and Director of Graduate Art Studies, including its highly distinguished Master of Fine Arts Degree program. He successively administered these roles for 20 consecutive years, ending at retirement as Professor Emeritus at Brooklyn College in 1992. On occasions, he also served as Visiting Artist and teacher of drawing and painting at Stony Brook University. He now enjoys full commitment to his practices as an artist and is a member of the Artists Advisory Council at Gallery North.

Artist Statement

My work as an artist embraces direct observations from life. This method is fundamental to my practice and teaching principles. Most consistently I’m drawn to the subjects of still life and human figure; these always inspire a basis in perception - or mimesis - from which expression may begin. I resist what is fashionable or doctrinaire, trusting my own compass and what is natural to my means. My process is vague and quixotic, ever-changing. Once begun, each painting and drawing seems driven to a life of its own; my part surrenders to apprehension, mystification, and moments of euphoria. I work in dreamlike state; time passes unnoticed.