Robert Patierno is an internationally renowned printmaker, draftsman and painter whose strongly graphic and powerful works have been exhibited throughout the United States and across Europe.
Patierno's prints, paintings and drawings reside in the permanent collections of the Frans Masereel Centrum Pour Grafiks, Kasterlee, in Belgium; the Erie Art Museum; the Lancaster Museum; the Southern Alleghenies Museum of Art in Pennsylvania; the U.S. Department of State, Art Bank; and those of many universities. His exhibits and shows are numerous enough to make recounting impractical. . Corporations, museums, and individual collectors alike continue to acquire his work.
As a founder of the Pennsylvania College of Art and Design, Patierno spent more than two decades developing its Fine Arts Department, as well as chairing it before leaving in 2003 to devote himself to making art. His production capacity is evidenced by his many and frequent exhibitions — including outdoor murals in his home state of Pennsylvania. He continues to guide young artists in his role as Adjunct Assistant Professor in the Art and Art History Department at Gettysburg College.
“Art making is my attempt to make order of chaos, so in this sense my work is observational in nature. What I perceive must be simplified, readjusted, and then the personal image surfaces, disinterested to a large degree. I think any subject looked at with a careful mind’s eye, becomes significant. The Art object itself is not as important to me as the resulting conversations that occur with my audience.”
—Robert Patierno