Vincent Baldassano, artist and professor of Fine Arts at Gateway Community College (GCC), will return to Rome this   July as a visiting artist at the American Academy in Rome. He has been a visiting artist at the American Academy in Rome, the Vermont Studio Center and the Virginia Center for the Creative Arts. The program in Rome "provides artists and scholars of all nationalities the opportunity to experience the intellectual and artistic freedom, interdisciplinary exchange, and innovation that characterizes life at the American Academy in Rome."

A longtime artist, Baldassano was scheduled for an exhibition of his work in Lisbon in 1972, but because of the revolution of April 25,1973 it was never realized. Even worse, upon his return to New York, Baldassano was informed that his paintings had been lost.

More than 40 years later, in 2015, he received surprising news: his paintings had been found in the estate of the gallery.

Delighted, Baldassano expressed an interest in holding an exhibition in Portugal. Understanding his availability, the Casa das Artes invited him to exhibit the works he created while living in Portugal, along with the works made by fellow artists Bravo and Lapa at that time.

Now, in 2017, Baldassano has been invited back to Rome to work as a visiting artist and to continue to research his painting project.

Vincent Baldassano was born in New York holds a Master the Fine Arts from the University of Oregon and Bachelor of Arts from Wagner College in New York. He now lives in Connecticut. According to Baldassano, his work is in many private and public collections in the United States, Europe and Asia, including the Pepsi Cola Corporation, Pfizer Corporation, the New York Federal Building, Housatonic Museum of Art, and the Savannah College of Art & Design. In addition to teahing at GCC, he serves on the faculties of Western Connecticut State University, and the National Academy Museum School, New York.

To see Baldassano's work, visit www.vincentbaldassano.com .