Jonathan Santlofer
Biography
Jonathan Santlofer
Jonathan Santlofer
was born in New York City and earned his Bachelor of Fine Arts
Degree at Boston University. He returned to New York to earn his
Master of Fine arts from Pratt Institute in Brooklyn, and supported
his early painting career with several teaching jobs.
Santlofer has had over one hundred solo and group exhibitions
including James Graham & Sons, NYC, The New Museum, NYC, The
Drawing Center, NYC, Institute of Contemporary Art, Tokyo, Japan,
Galleria Peccolo, Livorno, Italy, Betsy Rosenfield and Klein
galleries, Chicago, IL. His work is such permanent collections as
the Institute of Contemporary Art, Tokyo, The Art Institute of
Chicago, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, the Grand Rapids
Art Museum, Michigan, the Indianapolis Museum of Art, Indiana, as
well numerous corporate and private collections.
Santlofer's major concerns -- reality versus illusion -- have
remained constant throughout the evolution of his artwork. He was
first known as an abstract painter, but after a gallery fire in
Chicago destroyed five years of his work, he retreated to Rome
where he spent time looking at Renaissance and Baroque art,
drawing, and began to write fiction as a form of creative release.
Almost five years after the fire, he returned to the art scene with
figurative work -- a series of 100 carved and painted relief
portraits of famous artists against detailed replicas of that
particular artist's famous artwork. These fascinating hybrid pieces
mixed not only painting and sculpture, but image and content.
In numerous articles and reviews over the course of his career,
Santlofer's work has been described as "dramatic, supercharged,
lush, and witty," Santlofer's work is "creating it's own synthesis
of modernism, combining traces of Van Gogh, Matisse, Cubism,
Futurism, and Expressionism." "Santlofer's work resonates and
evokes feeling beyond what meets the viewer's eye."
Jonathan Santlofer is the recipient of two National Endowment for
the Arts Painting grants, a Skowhegan Scholarship, several Visiting
Artist residencies at The Vermont Studio Center, Visiting Artist at
the American Academy In Rome, and is a member of the board of
directors of Yaddo, one of the countries oldest and most
distinguished arts communities.
Jonathan Santlofer
