Joseph D'Esposito

Joseph D’Esposito was born in Red Hook, Brooklyn, New York in 1958. His Aunt and Uncle owned a candy store in Carroll Gardens; it was full of DC and Marvel Comics. He will never forget his 1st encounter with “The Fantastic Four” comic book. It made a lasting impression on him. Jack Kirby’s amazing, heavily inked characters inspired him to do his own amateur drawings, trying to emulate the styles and stories of comic books. Also, as a child he was inspired by African and Pacific Islands art at the Brooklyn Museum where he spent his time studying art.

Although his main interest at this time was in comic art he always made time to paint. D’Esposito left comic book art and the Neal Adams studio to pursue painting; he began painting cityscapes in the Dumbo area of Brooklyn, still life and figures in a modern realist style. D’Esposito’s history of working in comic art started to inform his art. It first started with a series called Comix, inspired by Vincent Van Gogh’s still life painting of his art books titled French Novels. D’Esposito instead used his own comic book collection with explosive figures drawn by Jack Kirby, Gil Kane, Curt Swan, and many others. They were scattered piled and arranged on bright backgrounds. He also admire...

National Academy Museum and School, New York, NY Painting - 1977 - 1981
The Arts Student League of New York, New York, NY Painting, Drawing, Anatomy - 1977 - 1981

Solo Exhibitions
Twisted The Plasticity of Form First Street Gallery 2007
Odds and Ends , First Street Gallery 2004
Altered Egos, First Street Gallery 2001
Solo Exhibition, Recent Cityscapes, First Street Gallery 1998
Berkshire Artisans Gallery, Lichtenstein Center For The Arts, two-person exhibition, 1998
Conant Gallery ETS, two-person exhibition, Princeton, N.J., October 1995
“Double Vision”, two person exhibition, Sunnen Gallery, Soho, New York, Feb.1994
Encore Presentation, Sunnen Gallery, Soho, New York, May 1994
First Street Gallery 1996, 1997, 1998,1999,2001,2002,2009
The Parrish Art Museum, Centennial Open, 1998,2003
Broome Street Gallery 1996
Bowery Gallery, New York City, 1993, 1996
Society of Illustrators Annual Exhibition 1985
National Academy of Design Annual Show 1982