Todd Bartel received a BFA in painting from Rhode Island School of Design in 1985 and also studied in Rome as part of RISD’s European Honors Program between1984-1985. He achieved his MFA in Painting from Carnegie Mellon University in 1993. In 1990, Bartel was a recipient of the Jacob K. Javits Fellowship (U.S. Department of Education, Washington, D.C.) and in 2000, he was awarded a Connecticut Council on the Arts Fellowship Grant in support of the continuation of his drawing series, “Garden Studies” and related “Terra Reverentia” series. Bartel has taught at Harvard University, Brown University, Carnegie Mellon University, Manhattanville College and Bridgeport University. He has been a guest critic at Rhode Island School of Design, and has lectured at Alfred University, Chatham College, Western Connecticut State University and The New England Teaching Conference, among others. Currently, Bartel teaches drawing, painting, sculpture, installation art and conceptual art at the Cambridge School of Weston, Weston, MA. Bartel is the founder of IS (Installation Space) a proposal-based installation gallery and he is the founder and Gallery Director of the Cambridge School’s Thompson Gallery, a teaching gallery dedicated thematic inquiry.

Todd Bartel is a collage-based artist. His work assumes assembled forms of painting, drawing and sculpture that examine the roles of landscape and nature in contemporary culture.

Terra Reverentia: Invocation, 1995, constructed wood box, tempera, velvet, oil on linen, vines, twigs, rock, glass, mustard seeds, 18 3/4x 18 3/4x3 1/2”
Terra Reverentia: The Cradle, 1995, constructed wood box, tempera, lead, mustard seeds, clay bas-relief, vines, glass, copper tape, 18 1/2” x 15 1/2” x 4”
The Assumption: Mystery of Alignment I, 1987 + 1999, sealing wax, ball bearings, book plate, and water color on Italian letter (c.1880), constructed wood box, discarded wood, glass and Italian playing cards (that fell from the sky—thrown by children—during a trip to a Sicilian antique store in search of Italian playing cards), 13 1/8" x 19 ½" x 4"
Abulic Terrain: Affecting Currents (Salvage Series), 2000, constructed wood box, old paint-chipped wood unearthed after second bucket-loader scoop at local dump in search of paint-chipped wood of exact color as used; anonymous painting c. 1900; cobalt glass eyewash cup, casein on wood form; root; mustard seeds; India ink on snake skin; museum glass. 23.38" x 24.25" x 5.5"