Christina Grace Mastrangelo completed her degree in studio art at James Madison University. While there, she studied abroad in Florence, taking classes in Humanism, Italian, and Art History. Immediately following graduation she returned to Florence to attend the Angel Academy of Art, one of few ateliers at the time teaching traditional methods. After three years of training she graduated from the Fundamental Program in 2009 and returned to the U.S. where she began pursuing her painting career. Her style is called Classical Realism: her work represents nature realistically, often idealized to achieve order, harmony, completeness, and ultimately, beauty. Christina uses traditional methods of layering oil paint and meticulous handling of charcoal to yield realistic work. Her dramatically lit still lifes and the carefully arranged subjects in her figure and portrait works are both time-honored yet contemporary, bridging the gap between her European studies and her life in the US. In 2015, the Art Renewal Center’s (ARC) International Salon selected Christina’s triptych “Know Not Thy Pending Fate” for the Knohl Award, granted for work inspired by literature and history. The European Museum of Modern Art in Barcelona and the Salmagundi Club in New York City exhibited the triptych as part of the ARC’s first live Salon. Christina has shown her work at the Villa Bardini in Florence, and had two solo shows in Florence as well as one at the D’Amour Museum of Fine Art in Springfield, Massachusetts. Her other most recent awards were from the Portrait Society of America, Oil Painter’s of America, and the Salmagundi Club. She is a member of the Hudson River Fellowship, and her artwork is currently represented at the Guild of Boston Artists in Boston, Massachusetts, and Williams Fine Art Dealers in Wenham, Massachusetts.