Art remains a strong contender of how we share our thoughts and ideas. Its power is in the possibility it offers to open, expand and maybe even change our minds. This and a primal urge to make things are the main motivators that drive me to continually search, learn, and generate new ways to express myself in the work I make.
I have spent half my life as a painter and the other as a photographer. It feels only natural for me to combine these disciplines. The use of materials in my work is calculated and usually layered. I am often looking for avenues of the unexpected, and just as I like to be surprised, provoking a participant to new and perhaps, unexplored territory is my aim.
A self-taught artist from Paterson, NJ, Alfonse Pagano was an assistant to Len Lye in the 1970s before attending The School of Visual Arts and the New School in NYC. His work has been shown across the country at galleries and museums, namely The Laguna Gloria Art Museum in Austin, Texas, and is held in various collections that includes The Carnegie Mellon Museum in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.
In 1990 Pagano took up photography and co-authored a photojournalism book, DREADS, in 1999. With an introduction from Alice Walker the book published by Artisan/Workman Press is on its eighth printing.
A move from NYC to Newark, NJ in 2011 inadvertently led to a development of a new technique forging both disciplines of painting and photography.
Exhibits
2019
All Politics are Local
Jackson Junge Gallery, Chicago Il
2018
Rush to Relics
Mana Contemporary
In the Age Of Trump
The Center for contemporary Polical Art
Washington DC
Rituals and Identity
Anne Street Gallery, Newburg, NY
One Year of Resistance
Untitled Space Gallery New York, NY
2008
We Cover the Waterfront
Seaport District Cultural Association, New York, NY
2005 Dreads WBGO Gallery, Newark,
2004 Dreads Paterson Museum, Paterson, NJ
2003 Dreads Stevens Institute, Hoboken, NJ
2002 Dreads Wadsworth Atheneum Museum of Art, Hartford CT
2001 Dreads University of Maryland, College Park, MD
1990 Henri Gallery, Washington, D.C.
1989
New American Talent
Laguna Gloria Art Museum, Austin, TX
Henri Gallery Washington, DC
1988
Ten Americans
Carnegie Museum of Art, Pittsburg, PA
Concept Gallery, Pittsburg, PA
Henri Gallery, Washington, DC
1987 PAPER PAPER PAPER
Helios Gallery, New York, NY
1980 Paterson Arts Council, Paterson, NJ
One Man Show
1978 Synecia Arts, Middletown, NY
1989 HARDTACK SUITE
Wenger Gallery, Los Angeles, CA
1989 RUMORS OF YOUTH
Concept Art Gallery
Pittsburg, PA
1982 WORKS ON PAPER
Zoma Gallery, New York, NY
1978 Synecia Arts Center, Middletown, NY
AWARDS
1975: Change Incorporated Grant
1989: NY Foundation for the Arts Grant
PROGRAMS
2019 Boot Camp (Immigrant Artist Mentor Program) NFA
