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Steve Palumbo was co-founder and, for 23 years, co-director of Po Gallery. He was a self-taught painter.
His work, for the most part, is small in scale and combines painting and printing techniques of his own design. His tools were matchbook covers, tissue box tops, cellophane, masking tape, onion bags, bottle caps....he had a keen eye for potential and loved to put to use what was accessible, ordinary, unlikely.
Steve grew up in Cranston, RI, attended Wesleyan University, and served two tours of duty in Vietnam. Upon release from active duty he worked construction in Pennsylvania and was a volunteer music therapist in the adolescent unit of a mental hospital. He returned to Providence in 1974, worked in an 'art house' movie theater and in the art and music department of the Providence Public Library. In 1986, with his wife Anne Huntington, he opened Po Gallery, and in 1996 they together began caring for a mentally disabled man from the neighborhood.
Steve was in his late 40's when he began painting, though he'd been involved in art in some form or another throughout his life. He wrote, he played guitar and piano, experimented with video, made small junk sculptures and worked with collage and cut paper assemblages.
He thought a lot about the creative process. He read the work of critics, philosophers, psychologists and artists dealing with subjects of creativity and perception, and he articulated his own ideas. He was alert to beauty, tensions, nuance, and the often subtle elements that brought a piece to life. "Cast light on the object of interest." he wrote. "It stands out. It invites. Everything surrounding it is consistent with the mood of possibility."
Steve had a rare creative gift and a penchant for innovation that informed every one of his life's endeavors. He was generous and forthright, a problem solver, a teacher, a guide.