John Maggiotto

John Maggiotto lives and works in Hastings on Hudson, New York. He is one of seven children born to Louis and Catherine in Buffalo, New York. After a Jesuit secondary education he went on to the University at Buffalo studying art history and photography under Jack Quinlan, Don Blumberg, and Tyrone Giorgio. Upon graduation he immediately joined the collective of artists at 30 Essex Street, which formed the artist’s space Hallwalls. Under the CETA program he taught under privileged children photography and visual literacy at the CEPA Photography Gallery. He was director of Hallwalls in 1978-9.

Maggiotto chose the recently introduced, Polaroid SX-70 camera, as his sole instrument of production. The painterly palette of this film matched his fascination and exploration of the color television screen. He captured fleeting gestures and fragments of the news, movies, and television programs of the times. Highly influenced by Robert Longo, Jack Goldstein and the Pictures artists, decontextualizing as he went, John formed new narratives in single and multiple image grids. Here his work was recognized and included in the 1979 Albright-Knox Art Gallery exhibition In Western New York, curated by Linda Cathcart and Charlotta Kotik.
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Jesuit secondary education he went on to the University at Buffalo studying art history and photography under Jack Quinlan, Don Blumberg, and Tyrone Giorgio. BA in 1977.
Instructor at International Center of Photography for twenty years.

2020 Upstream Gallery Solo show
Between Two Rivers
Think globally, act locally. We have all seen the beautiful pictures of glaciers, rainforests and pounding surfs; they captivate our imagination. The photographs in Between Two Rivers do the same. Between the Hudson and the Saw Mill rivers is Maggiotto’s local territory; a small wilderness between ribbons of asphalt and rail lines in lower Westchester. This environment is seeing the effects of invasive species and climate change too, yet it provides us with scenes of great beauty. The photographs are from all seasons. Winter is brown, summer is green and the autumn is a burst of fire. The scenes are composed to offer a richness of detail, enough for you to revisit the picture many times and still find something new. Rocks, trees, and vines fill the frame from edge to edge. Light of the day is captured in its fullness and most subtle colors. There are no grand vistas here; everything is a close inspection, a perfectly timed walk in the woods. These are prints in large format, which is the only way to absorb the detail he puts into the frame. Maggiotto presents our nearby wilderness with the same majesty others bring from around the globe.

SELECTED GROUP EXHIBITIONS ...