Louis Fratino

Louis Fratino (born 1993) is an American visual artist.

Early life and education

Fratino grew up near the town of Deale, Maryland. He graduated from the Maryland Institute College of Art (MICA) in Baltimore. Fratino was a recipient of a Fulbright Research Fellowship in Painting, Berlin, 2015–2016 and a Yale Norfolk Painting Fellowship, Norfolk, CT in 2014.

Career

In 2018, Fratino worked in Paris during his first solo exhibition, Heirloom, at Galerie Antoine Levi. Inspired by Picasso, Matisse, and other Modernists, he began working in soft pastel on raw linen. In 2020, he took up printmaking, working with printmaker Gregory Burnet to create a series of large copperplate etchings. In 2024, Fratino was included in the 60th Venice Biennale. In 2026, David Zwirner Gallery began representing Fratino.

Critical reception Man, book, mirror (2020), oil on canvas. Fratino is best known for his depictions of the male nude. Art critic Roberta Smith wrote of Fratino's paintings, "Seemingly painted mostly in the same interior, they are also hot with the pleasure of lying-around-the-house domesticity, of shared privacy. And they are hot too with painterly attention and erudition—inviting a similar scrutiny from the viewer." Antwaun Sargent, writing in The New York Times, grouped Fratino with other gay figure artists committed to depicting "the mostly unseen interior lives" of their subjects. Writer Durga Chew-Bose highlighted Fratino's attention to domestic details and his debt to Cubist still life. With everyone, Thierry Goldberg Gallery, New York, NY, 2016 Own, Only, Monya Rowe Gallery, St. Augustine, FL, 2017 So, I've got you, Thierry Goldberg Gallery, New York, NY, 2017 Heirloom, Galerie Antoine Levi, Paris, France, 2018 Come Softly to Me, Sikkema Jenkins & Co., New York, NY, 2019 In bed and abroad, Sikkema Jenkins & Co., New York, NY, 2023 Satura, Centro Pecci Exhibitions, Prato, Italy, 2024

Publications