Francis Di Fronzo

About

Born in California in 1969, Francis received his B.F.A from California State University, Fullerton.  He then came east to study at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, where he worked and learned under the guidance of artists Murray Dessner, Jan Baltzell, Sidney Goodman, Vincent Desiderio and Irving Petlin. Di Fronzo earned his M.F.A from the Pennsylvania Academy in 1998. In 2004 Di Fronzo was awarded the very selective Pew Fellowship, an honor granted to only four painters every four years, as well as the Stobbart Foundation Fellowship in the Arts Award in 1998 and the Liquitex Art in America University Award in 1993. In 2007, Di Fronzo was featured in the June issue of Fine Art Connoisseur Magazine’s article “Making Their Mark: Three to Watch”.

Francis Di Fronzo portrays the natural world with a sense of romance and mystery. His layers of paint create elusive and brilliantly executed surfaces, which are perfectly showcased in his impeccable approach to the light of the sky, the leafy trees, and drifting boats that inhabit his paintings; and he creates these poetic landscapes purely from his imagination. His highly realistic scenes are both beautiful and poetic, but also deeply mysterious, and at times ominous and foreboding. Di Fronzo’s unique imagery tells the story of dreams, aspirations, fulfilled and unfulfilled and the travels that take you to these destinations. Eschewing nostalgia and ornamentation, he transforms the ephemera of American landscapes into intense visions, revealing that the most unassuming territories are never as straightforward as they appear.

Di Fronzo’s painting technique has helped to underscore his outlook.  He works with a “comb brush”, of his own design, comprised of 60-80 individual hairs attached to a wooden stick.  Using this comb, he creates images of open fields and rolling hills by tapping the hairs onto a toned panel.  After many layers, the result is an infinite expanse of individual blades of grass, rich in tone, detail and hue.  Di Fronzo says of his method, “Now I understand that this technique really isn’t painting at all. It is, if anything, nothing more than a chant – me sitting on the floor like a monk, mindlessly tapping a landscape and an entire world into existence.” Di Fronzo has also experimented with a new technique to paint seascapes, creating sweeping scenes of open water that are rich and complex in color and depth.

“I discovered at a young age that art had the ability to transport me out of my world and into the lives of artists I admired. When I looked at paintings by Andrew Wyeth or Edward Hopper, I felt as though I was momentarily living in the worlds they created. I wanted to do the same thing. I wanted my work to have that power.”
— Francis Di Fronzo

“Over the years, I’ve realized I’m fundamentally a storyteller. Like the artists I admired in my youth, I’m using my paintings to transport my audience into a world that is different than their own. I’m drawn to desolate places and bare compositions. My paintings – as stories – are occupied by just a few characters. There is the sky and the Earth, arrowweed and creosote bushes, and perhaps some emblem of human existence… a road, or telephone pole, railcar, automobile, or roadside cafe.  I use these characters to create the bones of a story, and to imbue the paintings with some sense of mystery. There’s just enough to draw you in and to keep you engaged.”
— Francis Di Fronzo

Selected Solo & Group Exhibitions

2023         Francis Di Fronzo: Proof of Life (Part 4), Somerville Manning Gallery, Greenville, DE

2021         PAST | PRESENT | FUTURE, Somerville Manning Gallery, Greenville, DE

2021         Of Myth and Mystery, Stanek Gallery, Philadelphia, PA

2020         Francis Di Fronzo, George Billis Gallery, NY, NY

2020         Francis Di Fronzo: Recent Works, Somerville Manning Gallery, Greenville, DE

2020         Proof of Life, George Billis Gallery, Los Angeles, CA

2019         Introducing: Francis Di Fronzo, George Billis Gallery, Los Angeles, CA

2019         Parallels: Francis Di Fronzo & Kristine Poole, Evoke Contemporary, Santa Fe, NM

2018         Storytellers, Francis Di Fronzo & Victoria Wyeth, Stanek Gallery, Philadelphia,
PA

2018         Francis Di Fronzo – The Half-Life of Dreams (Part 2), Somerville Manning Gallery, Greenville, DE

2016         Francis Di Fronzo – The Half-Life of Dreams (Part 1), Evoke Contemporary, Santa Fe, NM

2015         Francis Di Fronzo – The Earth’s Sharp Edge (Part 5), Somerville Manning Gallery, Greenville, DE

2014         A Moment’s Respite: Francis Di Fronzo and Stephen Pentak, Haen Gallery, Asheville, NC

2014         Francis Di Fronzo – The Earth’s Sharp Edge (Part 4), Evoke Contemporary, Santa Fe, NM
2013         Francis Di Fronzo – The Earth’s Sharp Edge (Part 3), Rosenfeld Gallery, Philadelphia, PA

2012         Earth, Sea and Sky: Michael Doyle, Francis Di Fronzo, Christine Lafuente, Somerville Manning Gallery, Greenville, DE

2011         Francis Di Fronzo – The Earth’s Sharp Edge (Part 2), Evoke Contemporary, Santa Fe, NM

2010         Francis Di Fronzo – The Earth’s Sharp Edge (Part 1), Rosenfeld Gallery, Philadelphia, PA

2010         Inland Empire (Part 3), Haen Gallery, Asheville, NC

2009         Inland Empire (Part 2), Evoke Contemporary, Santa Fe, NM

2009         Inland Empire (Part 1), Rosenfeld Gallery, Philadelphia, PA

2008         Francis Di Fronzo – Recent Works, Somerville Manning Gallery, Greenville, DE

2007         Oil Paintings, Rosenfeld Gallery, Philadelphia, PA

2006         Francis Di Fronzo – Oil Paintings, Somerville Manning Gallery, Greenville, DE

2005         Sunday, Rosenfeld Gallery, Philadelphia, PA

2004         Anxiety Descending, Rosenfeld Gallery, Philadelphia, PA

2002         Trying Light, Rosenfeld Gallery, Philadelphia, PA

Selected Awards and Honors

2016         Artwork featured throughout Season 2 of “Better Call Saul”, Sony Pictures
2004         Pew Fellowship in the Arts, Painting
1998         Stobart Foundation Fellowship Award, Landscape Painting
1993         Liquitex/Art in America University Award, Undergraduate
1991         Southern California Art Alliance Fellowship Award, Painting

Education

1998         MFA, Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, Philadelphia, PA
1994         BFA, California State University, Fullerton, CA

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