Sal Salandra

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Sal Salandra (born January 1, 1946) is an American artist known for “thread painting,” a form of embroidery that creates figurative, often homoerotic images. He grew up in Edgewood, New Jersey, in a devout Italian‑American Catholic family with six siblings. He considered becoming a priest but his severe dyslexia stopped him; instead he worked as a hairdresser for 55 years. In 1993 he moved with his husband from the West Village in New York City to East Hampton, New York.

Salandra started needlepoint in 1980 while bedridden with the flu, and in 2015 he began making larger, figurative works that feature BDSM, leather, and references to Catholic iconography and American pop culture. His method often blends multiple small scenes into a single large image. Critics note a mix of Bosch‑like chaos and the flat perspective of traditional miniatures. He is self-taught and gained wider attention after appearing at the Outsider Art Fair in January 2020. His first solo show, Sal Salandra’s Thread Art Paintings, opened on July 4, 2020, at East Hampton Shed’s mobile gallery East Hampton Tow. A 2021 solo show followed at Club Rhubarb, with a 2022 group show in the Netherlands. His works are often shown in candy-colored frames.