Commentary
By Rocco Albano
Rocco Albano – Artist
Rocco Albano began pursuing his creative endeavors at the age of 13 as a Philadelphia graffiti writer. By the age of 18 he joined The Philadelphia Anti Graffiti network at which time, Jane Golden, founder of the Philadelphia Mural Arts Program, took him under her wing. Over the course of the next 4 years while working with Jane Golden, Rocco’s talents evolved from the medium of spray paint to drawing, photography, and mural painting using acrylics. He worked on over 50 murals, some over 7 stories high during that time. In 1989 he worked on his last mural sponsored by the Anti-Graffiti Network, as assistant to Kent Twitchell, in the painting of Julius Erving at 13th and Ridge Avenue.
Rocco went on to attend Temple University where he studied Fine Art at Tyler for a semester and then transitioned into Temples program for Radio, Television, and Film where he was introduced to the computer as a design tool.
In 1994 as the Internet burst on the scene Rocco left college early to pursue a career as an interactive designer and multimedia systems architect. Over the last 10 years Rocco has worked as a professional 3D animator, graphic designer, and currently as a Director of Technology for an interactive advertising agency.
During the last decade Rocco has transitioned from painting with acrylic to creating his work on the computer. Rocco’s current work is a blend of self-shot photography he has done over the last two decades, and a tedious process of building hundreds of layers of digital paint in Adobe Photoshop. All of Rocco’s work is professionally output via IRIS (Glicee) or large scale Epson printers, on archival papers and canvas.
Most recently Rocco has been working as a consultant for the Mural Arts Program, responsible for building out and maintaining a 10-station Multimedia arts computer lab funded by IBM and Comcast. In addition he is preparing a body of his work to be shown at The Thomas Eakins house this fall as part of a Philadelphia Mural Art’s group show for former program artists.
Exhibits
Silicon Gallery group show in 1996
Medical Broadcasting Company Gallery Show in 2002 and 2003
Publications
Philadelphia Murals and The Stories They tell
By Jane Golden, Robin Rice and Monica Yant Kinney
Pages 35-39, 43, and 81
Collections
Roger Halm
Seth Braverman
Kent Twitchell
Contact
Phone: 215-242-2616