Giuffrida show opens at Alliance Gallery

NARROWSBURG, NY — An exhibition of paintings by Mauro Giuffrida will open at the Alliance Gallery at 37 Main Street on Saturday, January 26, with an artist’s reception from 2:00 to 4:00 p.m. The exhibit will be on view through February 16.

Born in Brooklyn, Giuffrida moved to California where he attended high school and college, earning his BFA from California State University, Northridge in 1967. Then he returned to New York and received an MFA from Pratt Institute in 1969 in painting and printmaking. His early images were inspired by the aerial views of the Great Plains he saw while flying back and forth between California and New York in the ‘60s, but since then they have evolved into a life of their own.

Giuffrida’s paintings, done on paper as well as canvas, use torn paper collaged with acrylics, oil pastels and pencil lines layered on top. He emphasizes the qualities of the line, using different materials to create different lines whether thick or thin, graphite oil pastel. Giuffrida says that an essential element of his work is the inclusion of actions that happen while making marks, such as drips, splashes, etc. His focus is to play these off against each other, making them work together to create a finished whole that is greater than the sum of its parts.

Giuffrida taught printmaking at Pratt Institute and owned his own Lithography studio, Dragonfly Press, for several years. He is now printing consultant at the Brandywine Workshop in Philadelphia. He has been sharing his time between his studio in New York and his country home in Yulan since 1978.

This exhibit, free and open to the public, is sponsored by the Delaware Valley Arts Alliance, the Arts Council for Sullivan County, and is made possible in part with funding from the Visual Arts Program of the New York State Council on the Arts.

Gallery hours are Tuesday through Saturday from 10:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. For more information visit www.ArtsAllianceSite.org or call 845-252-7576.