Featured Work
Exhibitions





March 23, 2018 - April 21, 2018
Francis Di Fronzo – The Half-Life of Dreams (Part 2)
View the Exhibition →News


Exhibited Artists in TV & Film
February 28, 2018
Artists who have exhibited with Somerville Manning Gallery have appeared in a number of movies and television shows. Here are some examples!
View the Article →About
In 2004, Philadelphia painter Francis Di Fronzo was awarded one of twelve Pew Fellowship in the Arts. During this pivotal moment in his artistic career, landscape painting became “a stage for everything in life. Anyone who looks at a landscape painting can identify immediately.” In his paintings, Di Fronzo depicts highly realistic scenes of the natural world, which are both beautiful and poetic, but also deeply mysterious, and at times ominous and foreboding.
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 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.
Born in California in 1969, Francis received his B.F.A at the University of California, Fullerton. He then came east to study at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, where he earned his M.F.A. in 1998. Francis was also awarded the Liquitex, Art in America University Award in 1993, and the Stobbart Foundation Fellowship in the Arts Award in 1998. In 2007, Di Fronzo was featured in the June issue of Fine Art Connoisseur Magazine’s article “Making Their Mark: Three to Watch”.
Exhibitions at Somerville Manning Gallery
2018 The Half-Life of Dreams (Part 2)
2015 The Earth’s Sharp Edge (Part 5)
2012 Earth, Sea and Sky: Michael Doyle, Francis Gregory Di Fronzo, Christine Lafuente
2008 Recent Works
2006 Oil Paintings
Selected Exhibitions
2020 Proof of Life, George Billis Gallery, Los Angeles, CA
2019 Parallels, Evoke Contemporary, Santa Fe, NM
2019 Introducing: Francis DiFronzo, George Billis Gallery, Los Angeles, CA
2018 Storytellers, Francis DiFronzo & Victoria Wyeth, Stanek Gallery, Philadelphia,
PA
2016 The Half-Life of Dreams, Evoke Contemporary, Santa Fe, NM
2014 A Moments Respite, Haen Gallery, Asheville, NC
2013 The Earth’s Sharp Edge (Part 3), Rosenfeld Gallery, Philadelphia, PA
2011 The Earth’s Sharp Edge (Part 2), Evoke Contemporary, Santa Fe, NM
2010 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
2007 Oil Paintings, Rosenfeld Gallery, Philadelphia, PA
2005 Sunday, Rosenfeld Gallery, Philadelphia, PA
2004 Anxiety Descending, Rosenfeld Gallery, Philadelphia, PA
2002 Trying Light, Rosenfeld Gallery, Philadelphia, PA
Education
1998 MFA, Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, Philadelphia, PA
1994 BFA, California State University, Fullerton, CA
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 Art in America Excellence in Art University Award, Undergraduate
1991 Southern California Art Alliance Fellowship Award, Painting
