Joseph Santore’s paintings speak to us of ourselves. They lift the shroud on humanity, and communicate with us on the very singular, unique nature of consciousness, and being embodied in this world. His work is uncanny, and arresting, and the canvases are worlds unto themselves, both familiar yet chimerical, where line and paint dance in tandem producing a dynamic vitality, in both objects and figures alike. Santore’s studio brims with curiosities, materials, individuals and plants, all arranged and orchestrated for our contemplation and consumption. Predominantly painting from life, he combines the sacred and the profane in sets of his own design and choreography, juxtaposing seemingly unrelated subject matter and moments in time resulting in canvases that become existential, and reflect the unpredictability, spontaneity and controlled chaos of everyday life.
As Santore’s work has developed, his career has evolved on a rather unique visual trajectory. His earlier work was much more concerned with abstraction, and possessed a more outward, and boisterous frequency of line and brushstroke. More recently, his work has become tighter, more self-referential and contained, reflecting a greater concern for the finite grains in the sands of time. Painting with oils, drawing with pencil and charcoal, and watercolors as well (exclusively using them for a period of time, which the artist describes as, “an exciting and strange journey”), the surface of his canvases and paper ebb and flow. They beguile the viewer and produce a mélange of inspired, detailed mark marking, and broad, aqueous and chromatic strokes.
Santore’s work overflows with pathos and contradictions, and sitters within stare back at us, or out into the void. They are full of mystery and myth, and each work gives the impression that it contains a thousand stories to tell. The design of the pictures, their spatial arrangements, and figures within, create harmony both by and despite their disorder. His vision and pictorial arrangements are distinct and potent. They are steeped in history and civilization that the viewer can identify with, or find pleasure in experiencing, or find enigmatic or alluring. They reflect the lived experience of everyday life, and the objects, people and places that fill up space and time.
Joseph Santore was born in Philadelphia, and completed his MFA at Yale University. He has received prestigious grants from the following organizations: John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Fund, the Alice Kimball Traveling Fellowship, the National Endowment for the Arts, Peter S. Read Foundation and the New York Foundation for the Arts. His work is part of the permanent collections at the following institutions: Metropolitan Museum of Art, Yale University Art Gallery, Cincinnati Museum, the Tucson Museum of Art, National Academy of Design, The Denver Art Museum, and the Hunter Museum of Art. He was featured in the Whitney Biennale in 1991, and has had solo exhibitions at Edward Thorp Gallery, Yale University, Phoenix Art Museum and the New York Studio School. Joseph Santore has lived in Manhattan for nearly five decades. His studio is in Long Island City, and he teaches at the New York Studio School.
