Photo by Susan Zukowsky 1970
Frank Rampolla (1931-1971)
Frank Rampolla was born in New York City to Italian parents during the early years of the Great Depression and came of age in a world shaped by war. He received his early artistic training in New York, studying at the Art Students League from 1949 to 1950 and at Cooper Union from 1950 to 1954.
In 1956, he held his first one-man exhibition at the Fleischman Gallery. The following year, he married, exhibited work in Art U.S.A. at Madison Square Garden, and entered Boston University. In 1959, Rampolla was awarded the Grand Prize from the Friends of Art at Boston University and graduated magna cum laude with a B.F.A. in 1960.
After relocating to Sarasota, he taught painting, drawing, color, and design at the Ringling Museum of Art from 1960 to 1968. He later joined the art faculty at the University of South Florida. Rampolla died in Tampa at the age of forty. His career was brief, but his influence on students and colleagues in Florida was lasting.
Selected CV
Education
Cooper Union, New York Certificate 1950-1954
Boston University, Bachelor of Fine Arts 1957-1960 Magna Cum Laude
Teaching Experience
Boston University 1958-1960
Ringling School of Art 1960-1969
University of South Florida 1968-1971
One Man Exhibitions
1957 Fleischman Gallery, New York City
1960 Center Gallery, Sarasota, Florida
1962 Sarasota Art Association, Sarasota, Florida
1963-1965 Gladstone Gallery, Woodstock, New York
1964-65-69 St Armands Gallery, Sarasota, Florida
1965 Ringling Museum of Art, Sarasota Florida
1965 Theatre Gallery, University of South Florida, Tampa, Florida
1966-1968 Sindler Gallery, Coral Gables, Florida
1966 Columbia Museum of Art, Columbia, South Carolina
1968 New College, Hamilton Hall, Sarasota, Florida
1968 The Fourth Bucknell Annual Drawings Exhibition-Bucknell University, Pennsylvania
1970 Cellar gallery, Chicago Illinois
1970 Editions, Ltd. Art Gallery, Indiana
1971 Memorial Show University of South Florida, Tampa, Florida
1971 Memorial Show Jacksonville Museum, Jacksonville Florida
1971 Up Here Gallery, Atlanta Georgia
1973 St. Armands Gallery, Sarasota, Florida
1973 Image Gallery, Atlanta, Georgia
1974 Stetson University, Deland, Florida
1975 Valencia Community College, Orlando, Florida
1977 Hodgell Gallery, Sarasota, Florida
1980 Miami Dade Community College
1981 Tampa Originals, Tampa, Florida
1983 Arts Center, Saint Petersburg, Florida
1985 University of Tampa, Tampa, Florida
1985 Loch Haven Art Center, Orlando, Florida
1986 Art and Culture Center of Hollywood Florida
Group Shows
1957 Art USA, New York City
1959 Fine boston Printers, Boston, Massacheussetts
1961 Sixteen Florida Painters ath the Nixon Art Foundation Galleries, New Orleans, Louisianna
1962/1964/1966 Sarasota Art Association, Sarasota, Florida
1963 Meade Painting of the Year, Atlanta, Georgia
1963 One Hundred Prints of the Year A.A.A. New York City
1964 Manatee Art League, Bradenton, Florida
1965 Florida Paniliar, New York Worlds Fair
1965 "Art Across America" M Kneedler, N.L.C Tampa, Florida
1965 Two Sarasota Painters, University of Tampa, Florida
1968 Florida 17-WashingtonD.C., Tampa, Florida
1968 South Eastern Annual Exhibitions of Art, Atlanta Georgia
1969 Mint Museum, Georgia
1969 Boston University Alumni Show
1970 USF Visual Arts Faculty Exhibition
1971-72 "Florida Creates" a touring exhibition sponsored by Florida Gas Co. and the Florida Museum Directors Association
1974 "Contemporary Religious Imagery in American Art" Ringling Museum of Art, Sarasota, Florida
1974 St. Armands gallery, Sarasota, Florida
1975 Hillsborough County Museum
1978 Brooklyn Museum, New York, U.S.F. Graphics Studio
1978 "Museum Choice: Loch Haven Art Center, Orlando, Florida
1989 group Exhibit, Miami University,Oxford, Ohio
1990 National Gallery of Art Graphic Studio, Washington D.C.
Permanent Collections
Lee Nordese Gallery, New York City, New York
Tampa, Public Library, Tampa, Florida
Ringling Museum of Art Sarasota, Florida
Leepa-Rattner Museum of Art, Tarpon Springs, Florida
Saint Petersburg Museum of Art, Florida
Museum of Art, Deland, Florida
Philadelphia Museum, Pennsylvania
Library of Congress, Washington D.C
New College, Sarasota Florida
Mint Museum, North Carolina
Mead Paper Company, Atlanta, Georgia
University of South Florida, Tampa, Florida
Stetson University, Deland, Florida
University of Tampa, Tampa, Florida
National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.
Museum of American Art, Washington D.C.
Miami University, Ohio
Smithsonian American Art Museum , Washington D.C.
Major Awards
Boston University, Friends of Art Grand Prize 1957
Sarasota Art Association First Prize, 1961
Rinlgling Museum, Sarasota, Second Coast Show, First Prize 1962
El Paso Museum of Art, Texas First Prize 1963
Bradenton Art Association Drawing Show, First Prize, 1964
"Painting of the Year", Mead Paper Co. 1961
Florida State Fund, Fist Prize
Grant from the Secretary of State for the Frank Rampolla Traveling Show