The Cohen Gallery will present recent figure drawings and fantastical watercolors by Alfred University Professor Emeritus and Dean Emeritus Mario Prisco from September 16 to October 16. For Prisco, observational drawing using the human form is a touchstone to his larger practice. His figurative work has always influenced essential decisions in his painting–the selection of objects, the relationship between parts, and the handling of edges. His series of watercolors displays fanciful and recurring motifs in imagined landscapes of bold colors and multiple perspectives. The distance he travels from the real to the surreal may seem extreme, but the artist would argue that the painterly skills and compositional connections between the two genres are implicit.
Mario Prisco was born in Brooklyn in 1930. After attending the High School for Music and Art in Manhattan, he went on to receive his BFA and MFA at Syracuse University. His teaching career included positions at Moore College of Art, where he established the Fine Arts Division, and the School of Art and Design at Alfred. Prisco has had a long and successful career at Alfred. Among his many accomplishments were the creation of the design program and the establishment of sophomore drawing. He continues to attend the Thursday night open studio on campus.