This is the second of a three part interview with the director of the School of Representational Art, Bruno Surdo. Click here for Part One. In Part Two, we discuss the founding of SORA, good times, tough times, SORA’s relation to other means of artistic training, SORA’s unique composition program, and alumni.

BR: When you got back to Chicago, from Italy, why and when did you decide to start SORA?
Bruno: Well, when I came back to Chicago, I started teaching privately. I was teaching all over the city. I was doing workshops. I hooked up with a couple art studios. I was having classes and was generating a large following. At some point I was confronted by several students, namely Karen Larson-Turner, and they wanted to study with me, and understood the tradition I came from. They were anxious to learn this tradition. So at that point I decided instead of just having these people take courses with me here and there I would offer a little studio school. I wanted to start it small and offer the same kind of structure that I was taught. Even though I was doing these workshops and making some pretty good money and getting a good reputation, I always felt I could not give the thoroughness to the student that they needed to improve. When you run a business like that, you know people can only commit that amount of time anyway. I was frustrated as a teacher because I could get a student to a certain point and then I couldn’t get them any further. So I knew that it was a risk opening up the school, because there is no guarantee that I could find students that wanted to study in this tradition. But when I opened it I had 9 students and I brought on 2 other teachers, Mike Chelich and Chris Cismesia. We all did this tag-team teaching. I did the most teaching at that time, but Mike and Chris would come in when I could not make it. It was my school and I decided to at least give these students the opportunity to study in the tradition that I was taught. It was a dramatic time.

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SORA graduate and instructor Steve Ohlrich will appear in a group show at the Amsterdam Whitney Gallery in Chelsea, New York City, NY May 30-June 24, 2008. There will be an opening reception on June 5, from 6-8 pm.

Below is the first of a three part interview conducted with Bruno Surdo, director of the School of Representational Art, in January of this year. We covered Bruno’s background, his experiences at Chicago’s American Academy of Art, studying under Fred Berger, studying at Atelier Lack, and the founding and history of SORA. The purpose of posting the interview is to provide a window into SORA’s 16 year history, what the school is like, and contemporary realism. Enjoy. –Ben Rathbone

BR: Tell us about your background. How did you know you wanted to become and artist?
Bruno: Like so many children, I had a fascination with comic books. I liked religious art because I was brought up in a religious environment. So I liked the fact that pictures were used to tell stories and I gravitated towards that early on. I also lived in an Italian American family that always stressed great artists of the past. So if you were doing something, they would say “you accomplished that like a Michelangelo or a Leonardo,” so these were names I was familiar with very early on. I was fortunate to travel to Europe and see some great art as a youngster. I was the first artist of my family, and it was definitely an interest I had, probably when I was 8 or 9 years old.

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Here are links to two articles about SORA:

SORA: Sight-Size and More
by Mark G. Mitchell, American Artist, July 28, 2007

The School of Representational Art : Classical Training in Downtown Chicago
by Peter Bougie at the Art Renewal Center

Here are some shows from the opening of the Fred Berger Exhibition. The exhibition will continue until April 18, 2008 at Gallery 350 of the Illinois Institute of Art. Gallery 350 is located at 350 North Orleans Street in downtown Chicago.

Bruno Surdo and Mike Chelich

SORA Alumnus, Gail Potocki will be having a show at the Billy Shire Fine Arts Gallery in Culver City, CA from November 15, 2008 to December 5, 2008. There will be an opening reception at the gallery on November 15, 2008 from 7 to 10 p.m.

Quotes about Gail’s work:
“Brilliant occult portraits from the Symbolist underworld of the 21st century. More than just paintings, Gail Potocki conducts seances on canvas.”
–Grant Morrison, visionary author & psychic revolutionary

“A really fantastic artist… It’s refreshing to see a modern painter that has a classic, romantic touch and the skills to add a fresh facet of expression to the new period of Realism.”
–Robert Williams, legendary controversial painter

“Not since Christians were fed to the lions has a spectacle occurred to rival what is about to unfold before your very eyes!”

–Jim Rose, charismatic founder of the Jim Rose Circus Sideshow

There will be an exhibition of work by Fred Berger from March 4, 2008 to April 18, 2008 at Gallery 350 of the Illinois Institute of Art. Gallery 350 is located at 350 North Orleans Street in downtown Chicago. There will be a reception on Thursday, March 13, 2008, from 5 to 7 p.m.

Fred Berger (1923-2006) was a Chicago artist and instructor at several major Chicago art institutions, notably the American Academy of Art from 1972 to 1990. During that time SORA founders Bruno Surdo and Michael Chelich studied with Mr. Berger.

Welcome to the revamped news section of the SORA website. On this page you will find posts regarding news, events, and information about SORA and artists in the SORA community.