Michael Covello, born 1986 in Oyster Bay, NY, is an internationally exhibiting interdisciplinary contemporary artist. Covello studied at the School of Architecture, Art, and Planning at Cornell University and the University of South Florida. He currently lives and works in Pennsylvania and New York as an Associate Professor of Art at Kutztown University of Pennsylvania. His focus is in the areas of Drawing, Painting, Foundations, Animation, Visual Storytelling, and he coordinates the Italy Abroad program.
Covello has been twice nominated by the American Academy of Arts and Letters for awards and exhibitions and is the recipient of an Individual Artist Grant from the Arts Council of Hillsborough County, a merit grant from the Vermont Studio Center, a Work and Families Fellowship from Wassaic Projects, and a Mid-Atlantic Creative Fellowship at Millay Arts. In 2022-2023, Covello was a Clements Research Fellow at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor and an artist-in-residence at Yaddo.
Recent exhibitions include Drawing Discourse: Exhibition of Contemporary Drawing at UNC Asheville and Audio Visual Frontiers at UC Riverside, and Covello has exhibited at other venues such as the New Art Center, Boston as a Curatorial Opportunity Winner, the Florida Biennial at the Boca Raton Museum of Art, and the Florida Prize in Contemporary Art at the Orlando Museum of Art.
His award-winning animations have been screened internationally at Currents2025, the London Independent Film Festival, the San Francisco International Film Festival, the Buffalo International Film Festival, the Sydney Underground, the New York Independent Cinema Awards (awarded Best Animation in 2021), the Amsterdam International Short Film Festival (awarded Best Animation in 2021), and the Los Angeles International Film Festival’s IndieShortFest, (nominated for Best Audio Mixing in 2019). In 2025, he was awarded Best Animation at Film Invasion LA, the Ridgefield Independent Film Festival, and the New jersey International Film Festival.
EMAIL
mtcovello [at] gmail [dot] com
ALT WEBSITES:
CANDLE FLY FILMS //// A collaborative production studio that I run with Artist/Animator Elizabeth Schneider.
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