Artist Profiles

Tony Fitzpatrick

Tony Fitzpatrick is an artist, poet, and actor whose artwork can be found in the collections of the Museum of Modern Art in New York City, the National Museum of American Art in Washington D.C., the Museum of Contemporary Art in North Miami, the Museum of Contemporary Art in Chicago and the Philadelphia Museum of Art. His recent exhibitions include solo shows in New York City's P.S.1 - MoMA and Pierogi Gallery in 2007 and in the Sidney Yates Gallery of the Chicago Cultural Center in 2008. In the same year his work was also shown at the First Biennial in New Orleans at Prospect One. In 2009 he had one-person exhibitions in New York City at Dieu Donne, in New Orleans at Ammo Gallery, in Illinois at the Rockford College Museum, in Austin at Slugfest Gallery, and in Los Angeles at Billy Shire Gallery. His work has also appeared on album covers including the Neville Brothers’ Yellow Moon and Steve Earle’s El Corazon and The Revolution Starts Now. Tony has made a living as a radio personality, construction worker, and as a film, stage and television actor. He has appeared in 15 major motion pictures including The Fugitive, Married to the Mob, Mad Dog and Glory, and Philadelphia. Recently he appeared in The Promotion directed by Steven Conrad. In 1991, Tony earned the Joseph Jefferson Award for Best Actor in Prop Thtr’s production of Mass Murder. In the summer of 2003, Tony starred in Lookingglass Theatre's production of Race, an adaptation of a Studs Terkel novel directed by David Schwimmer. In 2010 Tony wrote and starred in This Train (16th Street Theater, Steppenwolf Garage) followed by Firecat Projects’ Stations Lost in 2011 at the Steppenwolf Garage before moving to the Boiler Room in Brooklyn. The trilogy concluded in 2012 with Nickel History: The Nation of Heat also at the Steppenwolf Garage. Tony has published eight books including collections of art and poetry The Hard Angels (1988), Dirty Boulevard (1998), and Bum Town (2001); a collection of etchings entitled Tony Fitzpatrick: Max and Gaby's Alphabet (2001); and three collections of drawing-collages entitled, The Wonder: Portraits of a Remembered City, Volume 1 (2005), The Wonder: Portraits of a Remembered City, Volume 2 - The Dream City (2006), and The Wonder: Portraits of a Remembered City, Volume 3 - City of Monsters, City of Ghosts (2008); and This Train (2010). Tony Fitzpatrick was born in Chicago in 1958. At the end of 2104, he will begin a new adventure in New Orleans.