Louis Fratino

Fratino graduated from the Maryland Institute College of Art, Baltimore, MD in 2015.{{CN|date=October 2024}} Fratino was a recipient of a Fulbright Research Fellowship in Painting, Berlin, 2015–2016 and a Yale Norfolk Painting Fellowship, Norfolk, CT in 2014.{{Cite web |title=Louis Fratino |url=https://www.sikkemajenkinsco.com/louis-fratino |access-date=2023-12-07 |website=Sikkema Jenkins & Co. |language=en-US}}

Fratino is closely associated with [https://jewishcurrents.org/doron-langberg-and-the-new-queer-intimism New Queer Intimism], a contemporary art movement inspired by the immediacy and colorwork of Impressionism paired with the intimacy of everyday queer life. Other painters who fall under this banner include Salman Toor, Anthony Cudahy, Doron Langberg, and [https://kyleconiglio.com/home.html Kyle Coniglio]. {{Cite web |title=Doron Langberg and the New Queer Intimism |url=https://jewishcurrents.org/doron-langberg-and-the-new-queer-intimism |access-date=2025-04-08 |website=Jewish Currents |language=en}}

Art critic Roberta Smith writes of Fratino's paintings, "Seemingly painted mostly in the same interior, they are also hot with the pleasure of lying-around-the-house domesticity, of shared privacy. And they are hot too with painterly attention and erudition — inviting a similar scrutiny from the viewer. Nearly every brush stroke and mark, every detail of furnishings and body hair, has a life of its own."{{Cite news |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2017/09/28/arts/what-to-see-in-new-york-art-galleries-this-week.html |title=What to See in New York Art Galleries This Week |last1=Cotter |first1=Holland |date=2017-09-28 |work=The New York Times |access-date=2018-12-28 |last2=Smith |first2=Roberta |language=en-US |issn=0362-4331 |last3=Schwendener |first3=Martha}} Similarly, Antwaun Sargent writes in The New York Times, "Fratino and these other contemporary gay figure artists share a philosophy, despite their different aesthetics: They’re all committed to reflecting the mostly unseen interior lives of the men they admire, and to celebrating a diverse set of subjects who, taken together, stand in opposition to a canonical history of art that has long ignored an openly gay view of the male body."{{Cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2018/09/17/t-magazine/gay-queer-figure-art.html|title=These Gay Figure Artists Are Reimagining the Male Gaze|last=Sargent|first=Antwaun|date=2018-09-17|work=The New York Times|access-date=2018-12-28|language=en-US|issn=0362-4331}} Elsewhere, the writer Durga Chew-Bose notes, "Fratino’s moony eye for the erotic is trained on details that rouse otherwise mundane prospects... which features two eggs on toast as well as other quotidian clues lyrically scattered on a round tabletop, discombobulates scale in its ode to the Cubist tableau-objet."{{Cite web |last=Chew-Bose |first=Durga |date=2021-03-01 |title=OPENINGS: LOUIS FRATINO |url=https://www.artforum.com/features/durga-chew-bose-on-the-art-of-louis-fratino-249394/ |access-date=2024-10-01 |website=Artforum |language=en-US}}

In 2018, during his first solo exhibition, Heirloom, at the Galerie Antoine Levi, Fratino worked in Paris. Inspired by the composition and subject matter of works by Picasso, Matisse, and other Modernists, Fratino began experimenting with using soft pastel on raw linen.{{Cite web |last=CFA |date=2018-02-20 |title=Rising artists to watch: Louis Fratino |url=https://www.conceptualfinearts.com/cfa/2018/02/20/louis-fratino/ |access-date=2025-04-08 |website=Conceptual Fine Arts |language=EN}} In 2020, the artist also started experimenting with printmaking during his stay in New York, working with master printmaker [https://www.burneteditions.com/artists Gregory Burnet] to create a series of large copperplate etchings.{{Cite web |last=Donoghue |first=Katy |date=2022-01-14 |title=Exploring Louis Fratino's Signature Art Style {{!}} WhiteWall Feature |url=https://whitewall.art/art/louis-fratino-finds-power-in-images-of-what-we-love/ |access-date=2025-04-08 |website=Whitewall |language=en-US}}

The artist was included in the 60th Venice Biennale in 2024.{{Cite web |last=Article |first=Eileen Kinsella ShareShare This |date=2024-09-26 |title=Louis Fratino Is a Star of the Venice Biennale. Good Luck Getting One of His Paintings |url=https://news.artnet.com/market/louis-fratino-is-a-star-of-the-venice-biennale-good-luck-getting-one-of-his-paintings-2541613 |access-date=2024-10-01 |website=Artnet News |language=en-US}}{{Cite web |last=Larios |first=Pablo |date=2024-04-17 |title=VENICE DIARIES: FINE YOUNG CANNIBALS |url=https://www.artforum.com/columns/venice-diaries-fine-young-cannibals-biennale-day-one-552314/ |access-date=2024-10-01 |website=Artforum |language=en-US}}{{Cite web |last=Halle |first=Howard |date=2024-06-05 |title=LGBTQ+ Artists Having Institutional Shows This Pride Month |url=https://www.artnews.com/list/art-news/artists/lgbtq-artists-institutional-shows-pride-month-1234672213/ |access-date=2024-10-01 |website=ARTnews.com |language=en-US}}{{Cite web |last=Rabb |first=Maxwell |date=2024-01-31 |title=Artists announced for Venice Biennale 2024, which will spotlight queer and Indigenous names. |url=https://www.artsy.net/article/artsy-editorial-artists-announced-venice-biennale-2024-will-spotlight-queer-indigenous-names |access-date=2024-10-01 |website=Artsy |language=en}}

• Satura, Centro Pecci Exhibitions, Prato, Italy, 2024
• In bed and abroad, Sikkema Jenkins & Co., New York, NY, 2023{{Cite web |title=Louis Fratino |url=https://www.smjny.com/louis-fratino |access-date=2025-04-08 |website=Sikkema Malloy Jenkins |language=en-US}}
• Die bunten Tage, Galerie Neu GmbH & Co. KG, Berlin, Germany, 2022{{Cite web |title=Die bunten Tage {{!}} Galerie Neu |url=https://www.galerieneu.net/exhibition/louisfratino |access-date=2025-04-08 |website=www.galerieneu.net}}
• Morning, Sikkema Jenkins & Co., New York, NY, 2020
• Come Softly to Me, Sikkema Jenkins & Co., New York, NY, 2019
• Heirloom, Galerie Antoine Levi, Paris, France, 2018{{Cite web|url=https://antoinelevi.fr/heirloom-louis-fratino/|title="Heirloom", Louis Fratino « Galerie Antoine Levi|website=antoinelevi.fr|access-date=2019-09-25}}
• So, I’ve got you, Thierry Goldberg Gallery, New York, NY, 2017{{Cite web|url=https://thierrygoldberg.com/Louis-Fratino-So-I-ve-Got-You-Images|title=Louis Fratino {{!}} So I've Got You Images — Thierry Goldberg Gallery|website=thierrygoldberg.com|language=en|access-date=2019-09-25}}
• Own, Only, Monya Rowe Gallery, St. Augustine, FL, 2017{{Cite web|url=http://monyarowegallery.com/exhibition-images.php?exnID=120|title=Monya Rowe Gallery - Own, Only|website=monyarowegallery.com|access-date=2019-09-25}}
• With everyone, Thierry Goldberg Gallery, New York, NY, 2016
• Reasons, Platform Gallery, Baltimore, MD, 2016{{Cite web|url=https://www.platformbaltimore.com/reasons|title=REASONS|website=platform-gallery|language=en|access-date=2019-09-25}}

• {{cite magazine |last=Fratino |first=Louis |title=Sketchbook by Louis Fratino |pages=104–111 |date=Spring 2025 |magazine=BOMB |issue=171 |oclc=61313615 |url=https://bombmagazine.org/articles/2025/03/17/louis-fratino-sketchbook/ |access-date=13 April 2025 }}

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Category:American artists

Category:Living people

Category:American gay artists

Category:1993 births