OPENING  Saturday June 5
runs through July 4

Perspective:
Vito Giallo explains that he does his best not to be influenced by other artists but he states Max 
Ernst’s use of unique materials and his unorthodox approach are greatly admired.  Giallo himself 
has been known to use a myriad of elements in his work from his vast personal collection 
including antique maps, fragments of fabrics, shards of rescued Persian manuscripts, newspaper 
clippings, and bookend sheets while affixing ink, shellac, pencil, paint or watercolor.  For Giallo, 
the process of creating a collage begins only when he is completely at peace.  After studying a 
blank canvas for a period of time, he inserts a single element that was created perhaps days 
before then slowly builds upon it by assembling pieces from pure impulse and intuition until he 
feels physically and mentally absorbed into the artwork.

Bio:

Vito Giallo was born and raised in Brewster, New York. He graduated high school in 1949 and 
moved to New York where he enrolled in the Franklin School of Professional Arts located at 57th 
and Park Ave.  In 1951, Giallo graduated with honor and quickly became employed as a graphic 
artist in New York's bustling world of advertising.  Within two years, he was also employed under 
well-known graphic artist Jack Wolfgang Beck and took it upon himself to turn Beck's large 
midtown studio loft into an art gallery, known to all as 'The Loft Gallery'.  It was here that Giallo 
assembled a team of artists and gave Andy Warhol his first New York one-man show in October 
1954, which consisted of hand-drawn imaginative poses of the ballet dancer John Butler.  Giallo 
and Warhol’s friendship grew by the summer of 1955 and when Giallo decided to close the Loft 
Gallery, Warhol asked him if he would like to work alongside him on his endless stream of 
commercial projects.  Giallo knew Warhol rarely turned down an assignment and was pleased to 
take on new work.  By then, most artists in the advertising business could only guess how Warhol 
achieved the sought-after look of his drawings.  Before long, Giallo too would learn the blotted-line 
technique that Warhol had perfected.  The mysterious technique consisted simply of tracing an 
image delicately with ink and then blotting the ink onto Strathmore paper, giving the impression 
that the finished image had been printed.  Giallo was surprised at how quick and easy the results 
were achieved using Warhol’s technique and stayed under Warhol's employ for nearly a year. 
During this time, Giallo and Warhol would spend the working hours churning out commercial 
projects and later, often go to parties staying out well into the evening.  Though many months later, 
Giallo received a taste of Warhol’s acute sensitivity and the fact that Warhol’s feelings could very 
easily be hurt.  One particular evening, Giallo turned down an offer to accompany the artist to a 
friend’s apartment and was never called upon again to work with Warhol, without even the 
slightest murmur of explanation.

New York’s abundant and varied artistic arenas provided Giallo with new opportunities.   After 
several years as a graphic artist and illustrator, Giallo's focus had changed. His growing 
fascination with antiquities led him to open an antique shop on 3rd Ave.  The venture only 
deepened his connections in the art world when many of his customers were revealed to be of the 
now infamous New York School of art.  Among the artists Giallo grew to know were Mark Rothko, 
Franz Kline, Lee Krasner, Richard Pousette-Dart, Joseph Cornell, Richard Lindner, Walker Evans 
and the poets Kenneth Koch and John Ashbery.  Curiously enough, Walker Evans had amassed 
much of his monumental picture postcard collection through Giallo, later to be owned and 
exhibited by the Metropolitan Museum in 2009. . For awhile, Giallo assisted the artist Karl Mann, 
helping to assemble collages with unique items he found during his daily excursions but it would 
not be until years later that Giallo would define his own sense of collage with the use of found 
materials as the basis of his own works.    Giallo acquired items for his shop that intrigued him, 
that brought him joy.  His aesthetic touch became an extension of his art.  In a sense, his 
customers bought his artistic style and looked to him to bring joy into their lives.    Whether it was 
Jackie Onassis sneaking a quiet peek at his new stock, Gypsy Rose Lee attempting to barter 
down the price of an early American dresser or Andy Warhol pulling money from his shoe to pay 
for a Navajo rug, the shop rarely saw a dull moment.  Countless stories piled up over several 
decades and Giallo decided to close his celebrity-filled Madison Ave antique shop after 34 years. 
For the next five years, he focused on his antique prop rental business.  Eventually, he sold every 
piece that had been used to grace many entertaining and decorating magazine covers to none 
other than the homemaking queen herself, Martha Stewart.   For Mr. Giallo, it seems like the 
meaning of retirement eludes him.  In 2001, he sold his Manhattan townhouse and took up 
residence in Brooklyn where he could focus on his paintings, drawings and explorations in 
assemblage and collage, which he continues to this day.
 

written by Thomas Kiedrowski - author of the forthcoming book on Vito's adventures.  Both Vito 
and Thomas will be at the opening. 
curated by David B. Waller

For more information, contact Gus Kopriva at Redbud Gallery, 713 854 4246.