Gregory Amenoff was born in St. Charles, Illinois in 1948. He studied at Beloit College where he earned a Bachelor of Arts degree. He served as Professor of Graduate Painting in the School of Visual Arts (in 1987) and Yale University School of Art (in 1991). He won the Massachusetts Bicentennial Painting Award (in 1979) and the National Endowment for the Arts in 1980, 1981 and 1989.

Amenoff relates his earliest interest in art, which began with a television show on art therapy, and copying images from art magazines he found in his home town. Then an art history teacher in college sealed his fate with an enthusiastic approach to a 20th Century course. He has taught at the Tyler School of Art, The Skowhega...