Fulton Hall Exhibit, "Interiors and Exteriors" Features Paintings by Joe Giordano

SALISBURY, MD-- "Interiors & Exteriors," an exhibit of paintings by New York-Baltimore artist Joe Giordano will be on display in Salisbury State Universityâs Fulton Hall Gallery March 9-April 16, with a reception from 2-4 p.m. on Tuesday, March 9. Admission is free and the public is invited to attend.

"When I started out in New York, I made landscapes and figure paintings. Later on I painted interiors. New York felt enclosed so my paintings there seemed to call for shallow space," said Giordano. "When I moved to Baltimore in 1989 I began to explore deeper atmospheric spaces. ...Baltimore has more sky and the distances seem greater. The Baltimore paintings reach for infinity."

"I started to paint in the garden three summers ago. I scour the land, walking, searching for something that excites. Looking high, then low, a glance in any direction can reveal a painting," he said. "Years ago I bought land in Maine to paint the landscape and struggled to find a painting; now it seems that for a small effort the world is in my Baltimore garden."

Giordano received fellowship grants for painting, dance and set design from the National Endowment for the Arts and the New York State Council on the Arts. Also, the New York Public Art Fund sponsored a Giordano entrance mural for one of the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey PATH stations in Manhattan, an award he especially prizes since he was director of artist certification and artist housing for the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs from 1981-89.

Among his corporate and public collections are The Library of Congress, New York Public Library, The Brooklyn Museum, Estee Lauder Collection, Prudential Insurance of America and the American Telephone and Telegraph Corporation.

Giordano has had solo exhibitions at the Queenâs Museum, NY, the Reading Public Museum in Reading, PA, the College of Notre Dame of Maryland, Loyola College of Maryland, the University of Maryland Baltimore County, the Galerie Francoise in Baltimore and The Green Mountain Galleries in New York City.

He is currently the visual arts chair at Carver Center for the Arts and Technology in Baltimore. His M.F.A. in painting is from the University of Pennsylvania, and his B.F.A. in painting is from the Maryland Institute of College Art.

Giordano attended Penn specifically, he says, to study under the painters Neil Welliver, Jane Frielicher, Paul Georges, Fairfield Porter and the photographer/film maker Rudy Buckhardt. He admires the work of mood and presence painters Dekooning, Rothko, DeChirico, Manet, Soutine, Carravaggio, Titian, Diego Velazquez, Frans Hals and Balthus. He credits his teacher and mentor at the Maryland Institute College of Art, Raoul Middleman, in helping him believe in himself as an artist.

The Fulton Hall Gallery hours are Tuesday-Friday, 11 a.m.- 4 p.m., and Saturday-Sunday, noon-4 p.m. Admission is free. For more information contact the University Galleries at 410-543-6271.