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Francis
Di Tommaso was born in 1953 and raised mainly in Europe. As a result
of his parents' work for the US Foreign Service, he was exposed at
an early age to prominent artists from various countries who encouraged
his artistic development. His formal art training was at the International
University of Art in Florence, Italy, and later at the Fine Arts Academy
there. He also was studio and life-drawing teacher’s assistant
to José Balagueró in Chicago. The
Franklin Library of Philadelphia published a portrait by the artist,
and the Italian weekly news magazine, Panorama, published
an illustrated article on his work. Paramount pictures featured
various paintings of his in Whispers In The Dark, a psychological
thriller with Alan Alda and Annabella Sciorra.
Di Tommaso
has exhibited his paintings and drawings at:
- Galleria nelle Antiche Terme, (single show) Florence, Italy
- Festival dell'Unità, (group show) Florence
- American Artists in Florence (group show) Florence
- Associazione Italo-Americana (single show, Cristoforo Colombo Prize) Genoa, Italy
- Stephen Musick (single show) New York, NY
- Courthill Gallery (group show) Brooklyn, NY
- Tyrone's (single show) Atlanta, GA
- Biblioteca Comunale (single show) Spotorno, Italy
- Grace Gallery, NYC Technical College (single show) Brooklyn, NY
- ArteNavas (group show; member of curatorial
committee) Avila, Spain, 2003
- Washington Square East Gallery (group
show) New York, NY, 2004
He has served as director of Student Galleries and the Visual Arts
Museum at the School of Visual Arts in New York since 1994. During
his tenure he has organized SVA's Masters Series award exhibitions
for Marshall Arisman, Saul Bass, Ivan Chermayeff, Seymour Chwast,
Paul Davis, Shigeo Fukuda, George Lois, Mary Ellen Mark, Ed McCabe,
Duane Michals, Tony Palladino, Paula Scher and Deborah Sussman.
He also
conceived and organized:
Sculptors
Drawings: works by Mark Di Suvero, William Tucker and Judy
Pfaff, among others. Guest curator: Chris Duncan
After School: works by Sara Sze, Suzanne McClelland and
other prominent SVA alumni. Guest curator: Klaus Kertess
79/97: works by the guest curators at the Visual Arts Gallery
between 1979 and 1997, among them: Alice Aycock, Joshua Decter,
Andrew Ginzel, Komar & Melamid, Loren Madsen, Elizabeth Murray
and Jackie Winsor. Guest curator: Jerry Salz.
SVA Gold: 50 Years of Creative Graphic Design: a retrospective
of SVA's renowned posters and publications, under the creative direction
of its founder, Silas Rhodes. Co-curator with Mr. Rhodes.
Picturing The Times: Eastern European Illustrators at The New
York Times. An historic survey of the influence of editorial
artists such as Istvan Banyai, Ray Bartkus, Mirko Ilic, Eugene Mihaesco,
Rafal Olbinski, Dusan Petricic, Peter Sis and Roland Topor. Co-curator
with Daniel Nadel.
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