Jay Constantine

I was born in Cleveland, Ohio and received a BFA from the Cleveland Institute of Art and an MFA from Northern Illinois University.  After briefly living in Chicago I moved to Grand Rapids, Michigan to take a full time teaching position at Kendall College of Art and Design.  As a full professor of painting, I have taught at Kendall for 38 years and was chair of the Kendall Fine Art Program and the Painting Program for a decade.  As chair, I was instrumental in creating the undergraduate painting major and the MFA in Painting.

My work is currently being represented by the on-line gallery Art-Commerce at 1stdibs. I have exhibited work at the Akron Art Museum, Brenda Taylor Gallery in the Chelsea Gallery district and at Woodward Gallery in New York City.  My art has been featured in the following publications: Observica Magazine, Direct Art Magazine, Studio Visit Magazine, and World of Interiors..

I have received grants from Arts Midwest/Regional NEA, Art Serve Michigan, the Michigan Council for the Arts, the Arts Foundation of Michigan and I served as an Artist -in-Residence at the Urban Institute for Contemporary Art.  I am also included in the NEA Artist Fellowship Archive at the Smithsonian Institute.  I have had solo shows at many museums, art centers, alternative spaces and commercial galleries.  My work is included in public collections such as the Grand Valley State University permanent collection, the Grand Rapids Art Museum, the Muskegon Community College collection,  the Kalamazoo Institute of Art and Pratt Graphics Center as well as private collections.