Victor Costantino was born in upstate New York. His earliest experiences in art began with weekend trips to the Metropolitan Museum and the Museum of Modern Art in New York City when the artist was eight years old. He began a traditional course of academic study in art at the School of the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston. While at the Museum school Mr. Costantino took critiques from members of the traditional French Academic School who had followed Robert Paxton who had studied with Jean Leon Gerome at the French Academy. In addition the artist copied old master paintings from the Boston Museum collection. During this period the artist remembers being badgered by fellow artists who in the late seventies were experimenting with graffiti and expressionist styles of painting.

After a couple of years in Boston the artist wanted to check out the New York scene. He began taking figurative sculpture courses at the Art Students League. During this period the artist states, "I got to New York and started to get swept up in the constant feverish search for individuality and trying to come up with creating something new for the dealers. As time went on the artist decided this type of environment was driving him further away from his real passion of traditional painting and sculpture.

After about a year the artist left city life and returned back to upstate New York to complete his Bachelor’s of Fine Arts degree at Syracuse University. During his stay at Syracuse, Mr.Costantino was awarded a Ford Foundation Grant for study in Italy where he spent 18 months learning to carve Italian marble. The Artist worked in a town called, Pietra Santa where Mr. Costantino described the area as a large melting pot of artists learning the trade or having the Italian craftsman realize their work in stone. While in Europe the artist traveled to France and Switzerland where he showed pieces of his work.

In 1982, the artist returned by to the states to try and finish some graduate study. It is at this point while selecting schools that Mr. Costantino discovered East Tennessee State University. The school offered him study in painting and sculpture while also teaching courses in design.

During this period the artist focused on painting for a master’s degree while earning money carving for a local marble company in Johnson City, Tennessee. At this point in my life I knew I would be working in some architectural field while practicing painting as an avocation.

After completing his master’s at East Tennessee State, the artist moved to Knoxville with his wife, whose family lived in town. These years, 1986-94 the artist began his series of cartoons of night clubs and bands. "My interest in music and performers opened up a new loose style for me, a catharsis or revelation. I discovered line, shape and simplicity in a new way." Joe Rosson, at that time with the Knoxville Journal in 1989 wrote the following about the night club paintings, "The jazzy,gritty, primal painting by Costantino stands out like a cry for help on a crowded street. Loud, glitzy and slightly tacky, however the pictures are fun, and they hold a mirror up to a rather romantic life-style that is alien to many of us."

Eventually the artist’s interest in this work subsided and around 1996 he saw some underwater videos of Olympic divers and swimmers during the Atlanta Olympics. "I became obsessed with videos of underwater figures, I slowly incorporated the computer to compose new narratives of the figure distorted and disproportioned by the effects of water. The artist began showing the mermaid series around 1999 to the present. In one exhibition showing these works, Terrie Sultan, curator of contemporary art at the Corcoran states, "looking at the figurative work, the body becomes a symbolic marker and suggestive of the intersection between personal and universal experience."

The artist describes this body of work as a great exercise in exploring color to evoke emotion on the figurative forms while also allowing me the freedom to express that form without the figure being restricted to gravity. These images in pose and perspective resemble the frescos of the Italian ceiling painters of the baroque and later 18th century."

Presently the artist is working on more narrative subjects based on the figure-landscape theme. "It is my plan to create my own story with the figure placed in a background which could come from the landscape or any interior space and to create a believable fantasy from the process of integrating different subjects together. The artist hopes to bring the experiences from his past work and to integrate these experiences into a new theme and style. "Personal experience remains a salient subject for me while developing a style which is lush and exuberant

The artist’s work has been exhibited in group shows throughout the United States and Europe. Locally his work is part of the permanent collection at the Knoxville Museum of Art and his paintings have been shown at all the major galleries in Knoxville. He presently works as a certified kitchen designer in Knoxville. He describes himself as a professional designer with art as his avocation. 

www.victorcostantino.com 

To learn more about this artist or to purchase a piece of their work, contact the Arts & Culture Alliance of Greater Knoxville at (865) 523-7543 or www.knoxalliance.com.