The Ohio Artist Registry (OAR) is an exciting opportunity for artists to share their work, connect with the creative community, and establish an online presence—all on a free, virtual platform! The OAR encourages artists working in all art forms, throughout Ohio and beyond, to create a profile, which allows them to better promote themselves and their work. Being listed in the OAR provides artists with new opportunities to share their work with clients, galleries, patrons, and audiences. A listing in the OAR does not confer an endorsement, approval, or verification by the Ohio Arts Council.
For more information, contact Kathy Signorino, artist programs director, at kathy.signorino@oac.ohio.gov or 614-728-6140.
2024 Ohio Artist Registry Juried Exhibition
Bio
Diane Belfiglio (pronounced Bel FEE lee o) earned her B.F.A. in Drawing, Painting, and Graphics from The Ohio State University in 1978, and her M.F.A. in Painting from Syracuse University in 1980. Also in 1980, she was awarded a $6000 Aid-to-Individual- Artists Fellowship Grant from the Ohio Arts Council. Since that time, she has received numerous professional awards, including four Arts in Stark grants from 2011-2014. Belfiglio has exhibited in over 225 group and solo shows regionally, nationally, and internationally. She has been affiliated with the Rubiner Gallery in greater Detroit, the Mangel Gallery in Philadelphia, Jamie Szoke Gallery in NYC, the Brenda Kroos Gallery in Cleveland, and other galleries and art consultants in northeast Ohio.
Belfiglio’s works are included in the permanent collections of six museums, including the Butler Institute of Art in Youngstown, Ohio, the Itchiku Kubota Art Museum in Tokyo, Japan, and the Canton Museum of Art. In addition, her works are in 25 corporate, hospital, library, and university art collections, as well as numerous private collections, including that of singer Patti LaBelle. Her painting, “Trumpeter of Justice,” was selected for the permanent collection of the Stark County Courthouse. Belfiglio’s work was displayed at the Ohio Governor’s Office for eleven years through a juried program sponsored by the Ohio Arts Council. In 2018, she was the “Featured Spotlight Artist” at the Governor’s Residence, selected by the Office of the First Lady of Ohio.
Belfiglio is currently a Professional Assistant Professor of Art and Studio Coordinator at Walsh University in North Canton Ohio, where–in addition to teaching–she has designed and directed 15 Community Art Projects. Ten of these installations can be found on Walsh’s campus, and five can be found throughout the greater Canton community.
Prior to her appointment at Walsh University in 2000, Belfiglio taught at Syracuse University, Kent State University, and The University of Akron. In 2013, she was inducted into the Plain Local Foundation and Alumni Association’s Hall of Distinction for her outstanding professional accomplishments and community contributions. At Walsh University, she has been the recipient of two Outstanding Faculty Awards: in 2018 for Scholarship, and in 2021 for Teaching. Also in 2021, Belfiglio was awarded Advisor of the year for her service to Art Club, which was selected as the 2021 Student Organization of the Year.
Belfiglio’s full CV, Review Articles, and Portfolio of her community art and other professional work available for sale can be viewed on her website: http://www.belfiglio.com.
Artist Statement
Over the years, I have undertaken many different explorations of medium and subject matter. I began my career in 1980 with large architectural acrylic paintings. From 1993-1996, I took a brief detour into the world of carousels with colored pencil. By 2008, I began to explore oil pastels, beginning with architectural images, transitioning into high chroma florals (earning me a solo show at the Butler Institute of American Art in 2011), and ending in 2019 with beach scenes. In 2020, I decided to explore watercolor, mostly creating florals and still-life. Over the years my work has vacillated between hyper-realism and formalist abstractions. But throughout all these artistic explorations, one thing has remained constant: my work is always about capturing light and shadow.
No matter the subject or medium, my work is firmly grounded in the formalist ideas that have interested me since my beginnings as a professional artist: closely cropped images bathed in the play of pattern between sunlight and shadows. Although realistic in presentation, I rely heavily on the underlying abstract qualities of my forms. Shadows, ethereal by nature, take on a rigid structural aspect in my compositions. Colors range from brilliant to subtle in an effort to reproduce the strong sense of sunlight streaming through each piece. My goal is to transform the mundane into the extraordinary, so that we see beauty in images that generally go unnoticed by most of us on a daily basis.
