Albert Justiniano

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The Sweeter Things in Life", 2016

I was born and raised in the Lower East Side of Manhattan, a native Nuyorican living on Rivington Street between Norfolk and Suffolk streets, in a culturally diverse tenement building in the 60’s. Occupied by musicians, dancers, seamstresses, bakers and painters, with varied backgrounds, tenants interacted like family with no preconception of race, color, sexual orientation or religious beliefs. My interaction with this family stimulated my artistic curiosity and my intuition for art.

Madre & Cafe

I immersed myself in the sensation of the inner city; and there, is where I experienced good and bad, witnessing the effects that these things had on so many people, exposing me to concerns of how adverse life can be for many. I began to translate those expriences into my artwork.

Freda En Plata

Memories

I think back on my childhood days when my mother would pick my brother and I up from school, on Pitt Street, and we would walk down Rivington Street as she held our hands when we crossed the streets. She would allow us, after we completed our homework, to go downstairs and play in front of the building where she can watch us from the window on the fourth floor. I could hear her saying, “stay in the front where I can see you and be careful.” “No se muevan del frente.”

From Experiences to Artistic Expression

Tenements Guardian

Embelishments on Building Facades

The inspiration for the painting, “Tenement’s Guardian”, comes from un refran that my mother said to me one day. She said, “Si tu te cre que nadie esta belando, siempre hay algien belando." ("If you think that there is no one watching, there is always someone watching”).

Taino

Human Faces Always Watching

So I began to see these architectural embellishments on building façades - Human Faces, Animal Faces and Gargoyles - as the ones that were watching while we played on the sidewalks and streets of the Lower East Side.

El Tronpo

Expressed in Art

These experiences are translated into my artwork.

Where Art Thou

EARLY BEGINNINGS & EDUCATION

My first formal art training was at the High School of Art & Design with Max Ginsberg and Max Greenberg. In June and December of 1982, I received The Excellence in Art Award from The School Art League, Inc., NY.

I began to study life drawing and painting composition, with Jack Faragasso at the Art Students League, and later with Sigmund Abeles.

Gallo Protejido

Employment

My passion for the visual arts has afforded me employment for over 20 years. I served in the capacity of Art Director for various agencies such as Jameson Advertising, Smart Advertising, and Grabuaskus and Partners. Thereafter, I became the Creative/Marketing Services Director, for RIA Group/Warren Gorham Lamont, a professional publishing company, for eight years.

Dove

Koi In The Bronx

Struggles

Teaching

My years of experience in visual arts has led me to an amazing career in education. I have been teaching Graphic Arts & Design and Fine Arts for the past 14 years to high school students with behavior and emotional disabilities for the NYC Department of Education.
What a great place to be for an artist!

King Of Kings

And Now ....

I get to provide an experience to young adults through visual arts, in which communication through art expression is expected whatever way a heart’s felt experiences desires.

"Art is not what you see, but what you make others see".

Edgar Degas