Frank Oriti salutes family, friends and hometownon canvas: Cleveland Arts Prize

Frank Oriti salutes family, friends and hometownon canvas: Cleveland Arts Prize

Frank Oriti

Visual artist Frank Oriti, 29, is shown in his studio on the West Side of Cleveland. (Lisa DeJong, The Plain Dealer)

Three months ago, Frank Oriti established himself as a full-time artist. Two months ago, he won a Cleveland Arts Prize as an emerging artist in the visual arts.

“It’s pretty crazy how things have worked out,” says Oriti, a Parma-born painter who can hardly believe his good fortune.

“I was ecstatic about finding out — speechless rather. It’s quite an honor, and the more people I meet, the more prestigious I’m learning the honor is.”

Oriti, 29, sees the arts prize as a show of confidence and an inspiration to continue what he’s focused on in recent years: portraits of brothers and friends.

Gaze at an Oriti painting, and you notice something beyond the people. The white backgrounds reveal the faint outline of houses, which have become the signature in Oriti’s art.

“Painting those houses and then working them out with white paint is my way of trying to erase this personal history or these places I’m now returning to and to start anew,” he says. “But what happens is, the ghost of the images winds up showing through the white paint.”

The subjects in Oriti’s oil-on-acrylic paintings — painstakingly constructed, starting with 15 to 20 layers of glazing — come from “blue-collar backgrounds, the same class of people like myself,” he says. As a youngster in Parma, he was brought up by parents who nurtured a strong work ethic.

His love of art began early. Enchanted with images in comic books and sports magazines, Oriti made drawings that impressed his parents enough to sign him up for art classes offered by the city of Parma.

But it wasn’t until experiences in college and elsewhere that he decided art would be his life’s work. He studied briefly at Kent State University and Cuyahoga Community College before receiving a degree in painting and drawing at Bowling Green State University.

After graduating, he worked in a steel mill in Cleveland “long enough to make me realize I needed to go back to school,” says Oriti, who went on to earn a master’s degree in painting at Ohio University.

Things soon unfolded quickly. On the day in 2011 that he moved back to Northeast Ohio, the Bonfoey Gallery in Cleveland called about representing him. Several months later, Bonfoey invited him to exhibit his master’s show during the holidays to fill in for an artist who dropped out.

“I think I was an easy fix for that show,” he says. “It’s been kind of a whirlwind since then.”

He doesn’t exaggerate. As the result of his work appearing in the periodical New American Paintings, Oriti was engaged to show 12 of his portraits at the Richard J. Demato Fine Arts Gallery in Sag Harbor, N.Y., starting July 27.

And now, the Cleveland Arts Prize.

Oriti, who lives in Lakewood, maintains a realistic attitude about his vocation, even as he looks forward to new artistic adventures.

“It’s always exciting when a painting will sell, but you never know when the next one will sell,” he says. “It’s kind of hard to play the game. But I’m trying to roll with the punches.

“Winning the Cleveland Arts Prize was something. It means I can sustain myself as a full-time artist.”

Search for an Artist or Artwork by Category

Artist
Style
Medium
Price
Size

Whispers of Light

16" x 8" / 40.6 x 20.3cm
Watercolor on Aquabord

Golden Reverie

20" x 16" / 50.8 x 40.6cm
Watercolor on Aquabord

Echoes of Porcelain

24" x 24" / 61 x 61cm
Watercolor on Aquabord

The Wake

16" x 20" / 40.6 x 50.8cm
Oil on canvas

Study for “The Guest”

7" x 5" / 17.8 x 12.7cm
Acrylic on panel

Study for “The Courtiers”

20" x 16" / 50.8 x 40.6cm
Drawing on artist paper

Power – Limited Edition Framed A/P Print

35.5 x 32.25 in

PURCHASE

Serenity

20" x 20" / 50.8 x 50.8cm
Watercolor on Aquabord

Far Away – Limited Edition Unframed Print

24 x 19.25 in

PURCHASE

Her Thoughts They Hum – Limited Edition Unframed Print

24 x 20 in

PURCHASE

Memory Weaver – Limited Edition Unframed Print

24.5 x 20 in

PURCHASE

In the Hollow – Limited Edition Unframed Print

27 x 20 in

PURCHASE

Her Fancy – Limited Edition Unframed Print

13.5 x 20 in

PURCHASE

The Sentinel – Limited Edition Unframed Print

20 x 13.25 in

PURCHASE

The Window – Limited Edition Unframed Print

20 x 13.5 in

PURCHASE

Wood Fire – Limited Edition Unframed Print

20 x 20 in

PURCHASE

No Turning Back – Limited Edition Unframed Print

10 x 20 in

PURCHASE

Thaw – Limited Edition Unframed Print

20 x 25 in

PURCHASE

Flight – Limited Edition Unframed Print

8 x 8 in

PURCHASE

The Road She Walks – Limited Edition Unframed Print

16 x 20 in

PURCHASE

The Travelers – Limited Edition Unframed Print

20 x 20 in

PURCHASE

No Trespassing – Limited Edition Unframed Print

20 x 16 in

PURCHASE

Beyond Here – Limited Edition Unframed Print

24 x 20 in

PURCHASE

Beyond Here

48" x 60" / 121.9 x 152.4cm
Acrylic on canvas

Recollection

24" x 30" / 61 x 76.2cm
Acrylic on canvas

Bloom – Limited Edition Unframed Print

8 x 8 in

PURCHASE

The Eclosion of a Butterfly – Limited Edition Unframed Print

12 x 24 in

PURCHASE

Shades of Black – Limited Edition Unframed Print

8 x 8 in

PURCHASE

Account Login

Don’t have an acount? Sign up now.