4 // COASTWEEKEND.COM
ARTIST BECOMES HIS TRUEST SELF
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Italian-born Oscar de’Masi opens Astoria studio and gallery
COURTESY OSCAR DE’MASI
Oscar de’Masi’s ‘Out of the Storm.’
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By KATHERINE LACAZE
FOR COAST WEEKEND
W
hen Oscar de’Masi was 15, his fa-
ther moved their family from Italy
to New York City. The relocation
was traumatic enough to curtail
de’Masi’s artistry for nearly four
and a half decades.
It wasn’t until four years ago that de’Masi, who
recently opened a studio and gallery at 395 11th St.
in Astoria, felt ready to re-embrace his passion for oil
painting.
“If I wasn’t happy, or at least content, I wouldn’t be
able to paint,” de’Masi, 62, said.
From the time he was an 8-year-old student at a
Catholic school in Naples until he was 15, de’Masi pro-
duced oil paintings with varied subject matter. Because
the school exhibited and sold the works at art shows,
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