The Art Students League of New York


Frank O'Cain
Painting, Color, Design

Frank O'Cain teaches the basic principles of pictorial structure. He gives his students a point of departure, enabling them to move forward to the realization of personal creative visions. There will be a planned series of exercises in white, black and gray, color, and line, with or without an object or model.

Mr. O'Cain was born in San Diego, California. He studied at the Art Students League for four years, part of that time with Vaclav Vytlacil. He is unusual in that his abstract art derives from an elaborate study of long-forgotten fifteenth-century techniques. For a time, Mr. O'Cain's oil paintings involved no fewer than a hundred separate glazes. But all these now lie behind him. They bear witness to unusual technical accomplishments. Recently, he has been exploring a new approach to space in painting. As he says, "I am always wandering about in the unknown, asking myself questions, creating new problems, finding fresh possibilities."

Mr. O'Cain has had one-man shows at Purdue University; the Miriam Perlman Gallery, Chicago, 1981; the Miriam Perlman Gallery, Flint, Michigan; the Princeton Art Association; Levitan Gallery I and II, New York City, 1969, 1977; the Saginaw Art Museum; the Ella Sharp Museum, Jackson, Mississippi; Northern Illinois University and the Theano Stahelin Kunstsalon, Zurich, Switzerland. He has participated in group shows at DD & B Gallery, New York City, 1996, 1998; Gallery Korea, New York City, 1999; and Gen Paul Gallery, Paris, France, 2002.

His work is represented in the collection of the White Building, University of Michigan; the Midwest Museum of American Art, Elkhart, Indiana; and in the Saginaw Art Museum.

He has previously taught classes at Merrimack Valley of Music and Art, Manchester, New Hampshire and the Fairlawn Community Center, New Jersey.



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