Fred (Amerika series #1) Collage

Shalom Tomas Neuman was born in Prague, Czechoslovakia in the aftermath of WW II. He is the last surviving male of a large Jewish family, most of whom perished in Auschwitz during Nazi Germany's Holocaust. His family escaped from Prague towards the end of the war and emigrated to Haifa, Israel where he spent his childhood. The family emigrated to Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania in the United States when he was an adolescent. He has lived in the United States ever since. Shalom studied painting and sculpture at the Tyler School of Art - Temple University in Philadelphia, PA and graduated from Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh, PA. where he received dual BFAs and MFAs in painting and sculpture. He was awarded the Damrosch Scholarship to study at the Fountainebleau School of Fine Arts in France where he won the Fountainebleau Beaux Arts Painting Prize. Shalom did his postgraduate fellowship studies in the sculpture department of Indiana University. He has made New York City his home after being encouraged to move there by Elaine de Kooning. He lives and works in Prague, CZ and Brooklyn, NY. Shalom has taught and lectured at a number of universities including Parsons The New School for Design, The Cooper Union, School of Visual Arts and Yale University. He currently teaches at The Pratt Institute's Manhattan campus. Shalom's art has been exhibited extensively in galleries and museums in the United States, Europe, Asia, South America, and Israel including The Museum of Modern Art (Carnegie Institute, PA), Musée de l'Homme (Paris, France), Mishima Eco Museum (Mishima, Japan), Zimmerli Museum (NJ) and The Ukrainian Museum (NY), Jewish Museum of Prague (CZ) and Kampa Museum (Prague, CZ). His work is in the collections of The National Gallery in Prague, The Ellis Island Museum (NY), Guggenheim Museum Library (NY), Museum of Modern Art (Nice, France), Museu Da Imagem E Do Som (Sao Paolo, Brazil), Museum of Modern Art (Buenas Aires, Argentina) and in the private collections of Elaine de Kooning (East Hampton, NY), Enrico Baj (Milano, Italy), Rosa Easman (UBU Gallery, NY), Chemical Bank (NY), Paolo Martini (Rome, Italy), Miguel Cardia (Portugal), Ann Gibson, (Baltimore, MA), Ivan Karp (OK Harris Gallery, NY) and Madonna. Shalom is President of Converging Arts Media Organization, a 501(c)3 not-for-profit visual arts organization and New York State registered charity.