BIOGRAPHY
Joseph Byrne was born in St. Paul, MN in 1954. He is a painter who works primarily in
oils and watercolor. In his still life and landscape paintings, he negotiates the visual and
conceptual territory between description and interpretation, representation and
abstraction. Byrne has received awards and fellowships from the Butler Museum of
American Art, the National Academy of Design, the MacDowell Colony, and the
American Academy in Rome, among others. Over the years he has lived in Minnesota,
Iowa, New York City, New Hampshire, Italy, and Ireland. Byrne holds an MFA in
painting from the University of Iowa, Iowa City (1982). Since 1986 Byrne has taught at
Carleton College, Dartmouth College, and Trinity College where he is currently is
Professor of Fine Arts, Emeritus, having retired from teaching in June of 2022 He lives
in West Hartford, CT with poet, Clare Rossini. They have one son, Francis Byrne, a
photographer living in Chicago.