Jonathan Santlofer

Jonathan Santlofer was born in 1946 in New York, New York. He earned his Bachelor of Fine Arts Degree at Boston University, Boston, MA. He returned to New York to earn his Master of Fine Arts from Pratt Institute, Brooklyn. Santlofer, both an artist and a crime fiction author, lives and works in New York City.

Santlofer has had numerous one-person exhibits to his credit, including Graham Modern Gallery, NY, Galleria Peccolo, Livorno, Italy, The Institute of Contemporary Art, Tokyo, Japan, Betsy Rosenfield and Klein Gallery, Chicago, IL, as well as numerous group exhibitions. His work is in the permanent collections of The Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago, IL, the Norton Simon Museum, Pasadena, CA, the Grand Rapids Art Museum, MI, the Indianapolis Museum of Art, Indianapolis, IN, as well as numerous corporate and private collections.

Santlofer's major concerns -- complex space, velocity, illusionism, and drama -- have remained constant throughout the evolution of his work. He was long considered an abstract painter. However, he more recently adds actual objects and photographic imagery. This moves his work into an area where the 'real,' or representational world, commingles with the 'abstract' world. A fascinating hybrid is created where image and content integrate fully, where everything in a piece works in unison.

In the numerous articles and reviews, Santlofer's work is described as dramatic, supercharged, lush, and witty; creating its own synthesis of modernism, combining traces of Van Gogh, Matisse, Cubism, Futurism, and Expressionism. With its multiple layering of images, strokes and colors, Santlofer's work resonates with mystery and evokes feeling beyond what meets the viewer's eye.