A ten-year overview of paintings by artist Michael Pittari will be on view at Mary Baldwin University’s Hunt Gallery, October 3–28, 2011. Primarily an abstract painter, Pittari creates works characterized by contrasting geometric forms set against layered, atmospheric surfaces.
He has had recent solo exhibitions at Marcia Wood Gallery in Atlanta, Lebanon Valley College, and the Susquehanna Art Museum in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. His work has been included in group exhibitions at the Atlanta Contemporary Art Center, the Pennsylvania College of Art and Design, and the State Museum of Pennsylvania. His work is in the corporate collections of Alston & Byrd, King & Spaulding, and the United Parcel Service, as well as in many private collections.
A native of Pennsylvania, Pittari spent most of his childhood in Florida and attended the University of Florida in Gainesville. He received a BFA in drawing in 1989 before moving to New York City, where he maintained a studio and worked for the journals Drawing and Arts. In 1992 he married artist Karen Rich Beall, and enrolled in graduate study at the University of Tennessee, earning an MFA in drawing and painting in 1995.
Pittari then moved to Atlanta and began a five-year career with the contemporary art journal Art Papers Magazine, first as associate editor and then as editor in chief. During that period, he wrote criticism, served as guest curator of several group exhibitions in Atlanta, and spoke at museums and art centers around the region.
Pittari taught painting and drawing at the Atlanta College of Art (now the Savannah College of Art, Atlanta) from 2000 to 2002 before leaving Atlanta to accept a professorship at Lebanon Valley College (LVC) in southeastern Pennsylvania.
Pittari is currently chair of the department of art and art history at LVC, where he teaches studio art and theory. He and Beall have a son and a daughter.
A reception will be held for the artist on Monday, October 3, from 4:30 to 6:00 p.m. in Hunt Gallery, which is located in the Lyda B. Hunt Dining Hall, 218 Hunt Drive, Staunton. The public is invited to attend.