Born in Brooklyn on the eve of the Great Depression, October 1929, Hank Virgona did not evince an active interest in art until he left the Army some 23 years later.
While he did attend a few evening art classes, his main influences were: (1) the book, The Natural Way to Draw by Kimon Nicolaides; (2) frequent visists to museums; and (3) constant drawing from life: on the subway, street, parks, etc. This comprised his "school" and extrapolating from these experiences he slowly developed his own method of work.
His early ambition was to be an illustrator and his forays into illustrating led to many commissions from prominent magazines: Fortune, Harpers, Argosy, Seventeen, et. al, as well as newspapers, especially The New York Times "Op Ed" page and for these he received a number of awards including the Gold Medal from the Society of Illustrators.
Satirical works skewing various power centers were published worldwide and his etchings were complied in a book, The System Works (Da Capo Press) for which he also wrote several essays. In its introduction, Pete Hamill said, "He is on the side of Goya and Daumier, George Grosz and Kathe Kollwitz."
In the late 60's, he gave up commercial work to concentrate on his own ideas, which gradually evolved mainly into still lifes in which the objects became metaphors for his feelings. This holds true for his figurative work as well.
Since the early 70's, Virgona has had over 30 one-man exhibitions in the United States and has exhibited in many more group shows both in the USA and Europe. He has received a number of awards and purchase prizes, such as: The National Academy of Design, N.Y.; The National Art Club, N.Y.; Print Magazine, "Twelve Best of the Year"; and Pratt Graphic Center, N.Y.; among others, as well as a grant from the Kantor Platt Foundation. He has also been awarded the The Perennial Wisdom Medal (gold medal).
His work can be found in a number of prestigious public and private collections including the Metropolitan Museum of Art, N.Y.;The Museum of the City of New York; the New York Public Library Print and Drawing Collection; Wichita Museum of Art; Skidmore College Print Collection; Massachusetts Institute of Technology Collections; and others.