Artists

Jake Bialos started drawing the figure at an early age at The Art Students League in New York City. At 13 years old he started drawing from the nude under Jean Liberte. He was an Art major at Music and Art High School during the 1960's and avidly followed the gallery and museum scenes before attending New York University as an Art major. At NYU Jake studied painting with Chuck Close and Robert Kaupelis and had his first student show of large acrylics and prints at Loeb Center. He studied printmaking with Chilean artist Juan Gomez-Quiroz and monitored the etching studio at NYU for two years. His work always included the figure as subject.

Jake entered the printing trade as a silkscreener and followed in a career track that involved specialty printing for designers and advertising agencies in New York. At present he is happily pursuing his career in sales. For close to twenty years Jake drew solely to amuse and amaze himself and others, especially children. His career in printing was all consuming and the pursuit of art was put aside. He dates his mature work to his first attending a figure drawing workshop in 1994 and consciously developing an ever-evolving style that combines a linear hard edge with the soft flow of watercolor wash for tonality. Jake is a passionate reader of novels and finds that the books he reads infiltrate his artwork in surprising and humorous ways. He no longer confines himself to rendering likenesses when drawing the model. He aims for a mythic fairytale approach that keeps its ties to realism.

The following books are selected by the artist either as reference material or of just plain interest to visual artists and connoisseurs alike. There is a more extensive reference library located in the Books section of the web site.

• HOGARTH , Jenny Uglo
• DELACROIX IN MOROCCO, Delphine de Cesnet, Editor
• THE WAY OF THE BRUSH, Fritz Van Briessen
• PAUL CADMUS, Lincoln Kiersten
• PHILIP PEARLSTEIN DRAWINGS AND WATERCOLORS, John Perreault
• A DIASPORIST MANIFESTO, RB Kitaj

The following is a short list of literary fiction:

• Richard Flanagan: GOULD'S BOOK OF FISH
• David Madsen: MEMOIRS OF A GNOSTIC DWARF
• Andrew Miller: CASANOVA IN LOVE
• Kevin Baker: PARADISE ALLEY
• Ishmael Reed: MUMBO JUMBO
• Neal Stephenson: CRYPTONOMICON
• Barry Unsworth: SACRED HUNGER
• David Lambkin: THE HANGING TREE