BIOGRAPHY
Craig Banholzer was born in Chicago, and studied at the School of the Art institute of Chicago, Indiana University at South Bend, The Art Students League of New York and the New York Academy of Art, where he earned his M.F.A. in 2003. He has taught painting and drawing at Marymount Manhattan College since 2004.
Additional learning experiences have included painting copies at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, and assistant teaching at the Lacoste School of the Arts, where he had the opportunity to explore and paint the countryside of the South of France.
Although he is an enthusiastic still life and landscape painter, the depiction of the human figure is his primary interest, and the genre of portraiture holds a special fascination for him. Accordingly, great portrait painting, whether by Raphael, Holbein, Titian, Ingres or Sargent, is central to his dialogue with the art and artists of all times.
ARTIST'S STATEMENT
“As someone who has devoted much of his life to the study and practice of drawing and painting, and as an avid gallery-goer for approximately two decades, it is my opinion that this is the most exciting time to be a painter in many years. The shackles of dogma that once limited us to a narrow artistic mainstream have finally been undone, and a vast storehouse of past technical and aesthetic knowledge, formerly the sole province art historians, has become readily available to every artist and student of art. The field is wide open, and excellence, however it may be defined, is the only criterion that matters. This sets the bar much higher than it was when I first started out, but, fortunately, the means of achieving the goal are more tangible than they ever have been.
“My personal goal is to distill my fascination with the visual world, and my love of the great art of the past, into experiences that are rich and meaningful for the viewer, by the exercise of a craft that it is a genuine pleasure for me to practice on a daily basis.”
RECENT GROUP EXHIBITIONS
Art Department Faculty Exhibit
Marymount Manhattan College, New York, November 5- November 29, 2012
Art Department Faculty Exhibit
Marymount Manhattan College, New York, Aug. 26-Sept. 28, 2011
Single Fare
Exhibition of paintings on MTA Metrocards, 224 Grand Ave., Williamsburg, Brooklyn, May 8 - May 12, 2010
Summer Exhibition 2010
New York Academy of Art, New York, June 7- July 18, 2010
Art Department Faculty Exhibit
Marymount Manhattan College, New York, August 31-September 29, 2009.
Summer Exhibition 2007
New York Academy of Art, New York, June 7- July 18, 2007
Art Department Faculty Exhibit
Marymount Manhattan College, New York, June 4-September 19, 2007
Open Studios
Juvenal Reis Studios, Long Island city, New York, May 19-20, 2007
Graduate Thesis Exhibition
New York Academy of Art, New York, May 10-23, 2003
Works in Progress
New York Academy of Art, New York, October 5-November 2, 2002
Sigmund Abeles Class Exhibition
The Art Students League of New York, September 8-22, 2000
