Joseph Fiore, N.A., a contemporary Maine painter, whose work, as described by Fairfield Porter “focuses on a fragment of Nature’s whole, the deep empathy, embodying a form of modesty, even humility...The current work achieves a transparency of colors on canvas through thinned oils and rubbing, the color harmonies glow with inner life, as if music and light were the source.” Fiore’s subjects include abstract landscapes, representational landscapes and “works inspired by ethnic carved and painted rock decorations.”

In May of 2001, artist Joseph Fiore, of Jefferson, Maine and New York City, was awarded the Andrew Carnegie Prize at the National Academy of Design in New York. The Carnegie Prize is awarded “for painting,” at the National Academy’s Members’ Show and carries a stipend.

Born in 1925, Mr. Fiore studied and taught at Black Mountain College in North Carolina. Later teaching positions included those at the Philadelphia College of Art, Maryland College of Art and the National Academy.

At Black Mountain College, Mr. Fiore studied with Josef Albers and Ilya Bolotowsky. Later, he studied with Willem de Kooning, Jacob Lawrence and Jean Varda. Joseph Fiore was a member of the 10th Street Art Scene in the late ‘50s and ‘60s, a group of galleries that showed his work and the work of Alex Katz, Lois Dodd, Bernard Langlais, and others. He has had one-person shows in New York at Staempfli Gallery (reviewed by Fairfield Porter), Schoelkoph Gallery, Fischbach Gallery, and others. His work is in the permanent collections of the Whitney Museum, Corcoran Gallery and the National Academy, among others.

In 2001, in addition to the National Academy show, Joseph Fiore’s work has been exhibited in “Abstract Impressionism, then and now” at the Emily Lowe Gallery, Hofstra University. Mr. Fiore is represented in New York by the Anita Shapolsky Gallery and in Maine by River Gallery in Damariscotta.

To Artist Showroom