“I am always searching for perfection within a subject. Sometimes, I think that I am searching for my own identity. When my work is going well, I am filled with a sense of happiness and fulfillment.”
John Balsamo was born and lives in New York. John was seventeen years old when he began painting and in his twenties when he won the Fence Art Show Painting Award for his painting “The Subway Scene”, shown at The Brooklyn Museum. John worked as an art director for Revlon for many years and left a successful commercial career to devote his time solely to his art. John first began showing his sculptures in groups exhibits at the Art Students League of New York where he has been a working member for fifteen years. He won several grants and awards. From 2004 through 2006, his work was shown at the Cork Gallery, at Lincoln Center. In 2006, The Art Students League of New York acquired “Le Torse Bleu”, for their permanent collection. In 2007, John was commissioned to participate in the “Geochang Granite 2007 International Sculpture Symposium” in South Korea, where his sculpture, “Reclining Figure” was reproduced to a monumental size for an outdoor sculpture park. In 2008, John’s work was in a two-artist exhibit at the Morrison Gallery, Kent, Connecticut. In 2009, he won the John Springer Art Award with the National Sculpture Society, where his work was shown in a group show at the Park Avenue Atrium in New York and Brookgreen Gardens, South Carolina. In 2010, John was selected as a Fellow for the League's inaugural "Models to Monuments" program, where he participated in the start-to-finish process of planning, developing and executing a sculptural program for installation in Riverside Park South, under the guidance of Greg Wyatt, which was completed in June 2011. His sculpture "New Age" was on display until May 2012. It is now on display at the Rockland Community College, Suffern. N.Y. In July 2014, John was given a grant by the Art Students League to attend their Vitlacyl Residency Program, where he completed a series of paintings. Private collectors in New York, Paris and Montreal, have acquired his work. John is an Elected member of The Allied Artists of America, an Elected member of Audubon Artists, Inc., an Elected member of the American Artists Professional League, Inc. and a Member of the National Sculpture Society.