Francis Crisafio was born and raised in Pittsburgh, PA. and studied painting and printmaking at Carnegie Mellon University. A self-taught photographer, Mr. Crisafio tends to work on long-term, narrative projects focusing on identity. He has been included in many group exhibitions including the Photographic Resource Center, Boston; “The Fence,” Brooklyn and Boston; Filter Festival/Space, Chicago; Center for Photography, Greenville, SC; Los Angeles Center for Photography; PhotoNOLA, New Orleans; Aperture Foundation Gallery and Soho Photo Gallery amongst others.
His work has been curated/juried by Elizabeth Avedon, Jamie Lee Curtis, Aline Smithson, Christopher Rauschenberg/Bluesky Gallery, Reto Thuring, Curator of Contemporary Art, Cleveland Museum of Art; Jose Diaz, Curator, The Andy Warhol Museum and others.
Crisafio was a LensCulture Exposure Awards Finalist, 2015; a Semifinalist in The Print Center’s 87th, 90th and 93rd ANNUAL International Competition, 2013, 2015 and 2018; a Fellow at the Silver Eye Center of Photography, Pittsburgh, 2017; and a Finalist for Exposure at Photographic Resource Center, Boston, 2018 and 2020 and the Chautauqua Institute / Strohl Art Center, 2023 amongst others.
He has been reviewed in Artscope Magazine, The Boston Globe, Feature Shoot, Hyperallergic, Lenscratch, A Photo Editor and Slate Magazine. His is work is included in the permanent collection of Carnegie Mellon University and the Center for Creative Photography in Tucson as well as in private collections across the country. He resides and works in Pittsburgh, PA.
Statement:
The images presented in this exhibition are from “The Palace of Anxiety’, a long standing project that has evolved over many years. The project is built around still images from family photo archives, my own photos in response as well as text and video. Autobiographical in nature, the ‘Palace” reflects on my immediate family, ancestors of which most are now gone and my creative life that emerged from this stew. My tribe were immigrants, they came to America at the turn of the 20th Century. Departing Italy one by one, they sought a better life as their homeland recoiled in the aftermath of WWI. Upon arriving in a strange land they anxiously did their best to assimilate into the “American Dream”. Yet, they fiercely clung to their native roots and identity lest they forgot where they came from.
Eating and food were monumental aspects of our life. Everything revolved around those meals and the table they rested on. The family came from poor and humble beginnings and they grew their own gardens, they gathered food from local farms to table, they made their own bread, sauce, pasta and wine. Most of my memories, fond or not so, revolve around food and the kitchen. The kitchen is my favorite room in the “Palace”. Cultivated, cooked, devoured and digested. I am the food I have eaten.” Francis Crisafio 2025
