BIOGRAPHY
I am a Contemporary artist with an academic traditional leaning. Autodidact for the most part, I have studied at some places that are important to the art world; schools, academics, artist, critics. Most of time I paint, but sometimes I write as well. Always in pursuit of the most honest and pure art I can paint or see.
I wish that I could define my infatuation with paint or making paintings specify, but I totally understand what it means to be infatuated with an idea. Either way it makes me look and see things differently than most people, so I run at an atypical pace. People have passed through my life but the one constant thing has been my painting.
CV
Education
Hunter College, MFA, New York, NY, Attended 2013-14
Clark University, BA, Worcester, Mass., 2011
Fine Arts Work Center, Summer 2001, Summer 2002, Provincetown, Mass.
Worcester Museum of Art, Studio Program, Worcester, Mass., 1984
Residencies
2008 School of Visual Arts, New York, N.Y.
2006 Cooper Union School of Art, New York, N.Y.
2005 Contemporary Artists Center, North Adams, Mass.
Selected Exhibitions (*solo)
2017 Becoming a Dad: Jon Petro, New Bedford Art Museum/ArtWorks!’s Heritage Gallery
2010 Abstract New England – Six Perspectives, University of Maine Museum of Art, Bangor, Maine
2008 A Survey in Process; JON PETRO 2004-2008*, Gail Cahalan Gallery, Providence, R.I.
Scratching the Surface, Hanover Center for the Performing Arts, Worcester, Mass.
9th Biennial New England/New Talent, Fitchburg Art Museum, Fitchburg, Mass.
STATEMENT
Painting is the most immediate way I can express my intuitive sense of creativity. When painting I rarely start with a fixed idea. It’s more on par with the act of meditation. It could be something I see, or sometimes it’s what I’ve read that changes me as a painter. My work rests solidly on the 6 formal elements of Abstract Art – Line, Texture, Shape, Form, Color, Value and Tone.
