Biography

John de Andrea was born in Denver, Colorado and studied painting at the University of Colorado from 1961 to 1965. He began making fibreglass casts of parts of the body while at graduate school in New Mexico, inspired by seeing a friend using fibreglass to make kayaks. De Andrea developed his technique to make increasingly sophisticated and lifelike models, which are painstakingly painted by hand. Like the sculptures of Duane Hanson, de Andrea's casts of female nudes are associated with the photorealist movement in sculpture and painting.