Charles Library, Temple University, Philadelphia

Peter d’Agostino, Professor Emeritus of Film & Media Arts, Temple University

Introduction

Peter d'Agostino was born in 1945, East Harlem, Manhattan and moved to the Bronx in 1950.
He began drawing and painting at an early age, receiving scholarships to study at New York
City’s High School of Art & Design, The Art Students League, School of Visual Arts (BFA) and
Academy of Fine Arts, Naples, Italy. In 1968, he relocated to San Francisco, first to Haight-
Ashbury and later to Potrero Hill, where his focus shifted from painting to concept oriented
works in the form of slide projections, film loops and video, resulting in his first one-person
exhibition, PROJECTIONS at the Quay Gallery, SF, 1973. In 1974, during the first round of
the National Endowment for the Art’s video grants, d’Agostino was awarded a fellowship for
The Walks Series video installation, exhibited at the 80 Langton Street art gallery, SF, 1975.
Later that year he completed his graduate studies at San Francisco State University (MA).
The San Francisco Museum of Modern Art’s exhibition, Space/Time/Sound: Conceptual Art
in the San Francisco Bay Area: The 1970s, featured d’Agostino’s Comings & Goings video
installation.

D’Agostino’s academic positions include: Lone Mountain College, USF, 1973-76; San
Francisco Art Institute, 1976-77; Wright State University, Dayton, 1977-80; University
of California, Los Angeles, 1980; Carnegie-Mellon University, 1981; University of North
Carolina, Chapel Hill, 1982; Temple University, Film & Media Arts, 1982-2024; Director of
Temple study away programs, London, 1988; San Francisco Bay Area, 2014;
Climate, Sustainability and the Arts, 2016-24.

Artist's Books     Video interview: Temple University     Event: Printed Matter