Bio
Thomas Germano is a professional artist and professor of art with over three decades of exhibitions and professional experience. A native New Yorker, Germano was born in NYC and currently lives and maintains an art studio in Long Island, NY.
Germano is a Full Professor of Art and Art History at Farmingdale State College/SUNY. He also teaches a Graduate Seminar at the New York Academy of Art, NYC and before the international health crisis, taught an annual class alternating in studio painting and Renaissance Art History in Florence, Rome and Lucca Italy.
He holds an MFA in Painting from Yale University and a BFA from Cornell University, concentrating in painting and minoring in art history.
Professor Germano is an exhibiting artist, published author and frequent presenter of art lectures throughout the NYC and Long Island areas.
He is the recipient of two National Endowment for the Humanities Awards in 2011 and 2014; The Edwin Palmer Award in Painting from the National Academy of Design, 2006; an IREX Award in 1989; twelve Professional Development Awards through SUNY; and the SUNY Chancellor’s Award for Excellence in Creative Scholarship, 2017.
Thomas Germano has exhibited his artwork frequently throughout the US and Europe and he maintains an active studio practice in Long Island, NY.
His essay “A Brief History of Traditional Painting Pedagogy” appeared in “The Figure”, 2014 Skira/Rizzoli Publishers. In 2018, he co-curated Rubens and the Flemish 17th Century for Iona College, New Rochelle, NY, and co-authored the accompanying catalog both with Tom Ruggio. Germano presented a paper titled, “LEONARDO DA VINCI’S “VIRGIN OF THE ROCKS: The Problematic Second Version,” at the ‘Leonardo’s Humanism’ International Conference held at the Florence University of the Arts, Firenze, Italy November 30-December 1, 2018. This essay was published January 2021 by the Florence University of the Arts.
In 2019, Germano presented a paper titled “Syncretism in the ‘Florentine Codex,” within the panel on “16th century Tenochtitlan” at the College Art Association, February 14, 2019.
In 2021, he presented a lecture at Boston University on ‘Writing The Future: Basquiat and the Hip Hop Generation.’
In 2020 he created sixteen original paintings for a book project with the American Labor Museum in Haledon, NJ about the Paterson Silk Strike, 1913.The book was published in 2021 and Germano’s artworks were exhibited at the American Labor Museum in 2022.
Thomas Germano exhibited three paintings in the 2020-2021 Long Island Biennial exhibition at the Heckscher Museum of Art in Huntington, NY and one new work in the juried NYS art educators exhibition at Farmingdale State College, summer, 2022.
In the Fall of 2022, Germano participated in “Five Painters: Kentucky Roots, curated by his long-time gallery, Heike and Irwin Pickett for the City Gallery, Pam Miller Downtown Art Center, Lexington, KY. Germano has shown with the Heike Pickett Gallery in Versailles, KY for nearly 25 years.
From August 25 through December 21, 2022 Germano held a solo exhibition of 16 new works at the newly founded “Faculty Center” on the campus of Farmingdale State College, Greenley Library Building.
In 2023, Germano participated in a faculty exhibition at the New York Academy of Art, NYC; a faculty exhibit at the Farmingdale State College; An exhibition of NYS Educators; and he co-curated and exhibited in a group exhibition at the Manhasset Library Gallery from April 15-Sept. 2023. Germano’s paintings were featured in two separate auctions to raise money for the Sands Point Preserve Gardens (August, 2023); and a second auction for the Heckscher Museum in Huntington, LI (October, 2023.) In September, 2023 Germano published a limited edition giclee print of “The Dove-Torr Cottage”, 2023. In December, 2023 Germano will present a new body of artwork at the conference “Italo Calvino’s Gardens of Culture: Six Memos for the New Millenium” at the Florence University of the Arts, Italy December 1-2, 2023.) A 2024 Publication of the artwork with the artist’s description is anticipated.
In addition to this website, he can be followed on Instagram: thomas_germano_artist; and his website of art lectures can be found at: https://thomasgermanoartlectures.wordpress.com
Germano’s paintings and drawings are in public and private collections throughout New York, The US, The UK and Europe.