Alfred D. Crimi received his formal training at the National Academy of Design in New York City and at the Beaux Arte in Paris. After receiving a Tiffany Fellowship he returned to Italy to continue his art studies in Rome where he studied the art of fresco, encaustic, and perspective drawing.

During the Depression, He was recruited and commissioned by the Works Progress Administration to paint a mural at the Key West Aquarium, which he completed in 1935. The fresco, with its vivid, vibrant colors shows Key West fishermen unloading a catch of fish. In 1936 he was chosen out of three hundred entries to produce a mural for the main Post Office building in Washington, D.C.

After WWII his work progressed from realism to expressionism to abstractionism. In 1947, the George Binet Gallery in New York held his one-man show. Crimi taught at the Pratt Institute in New York and Penn State University.

He exhibited in major national and international museums, including New York City’s Whitney Museum, Museum of Modern Art, Metropolitan Museum of Art, and The Chicago Art Institute.