Gerald Auten was educated at The University of Iowa (BFA Drawing and Painting), Washington University-St. Louis (MFA Painting) and The University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee (M. Arch). As Senior Lecturer in Studio Art he teaches drawing, painting, architecture and senior seminar at Dartmouth College. He is also the Director of The Studio Art Exhibition Program.

His work has been exhibited widely in the U.S. and abroad including exhibitions in Teheran, Mexico City, New York, Chicago and Vancouver. Recent exhibition venues include: The Currier Museum of Art, Manchester, New Hampshire; The American Academy of Arts and Letters, New York; The Hood Museum of Art, Dartmouth College; The National Academy Museum, New York; The Park Avenue Armory Work on Paper Exhibition, and Lori Bookstein Fine Art, New York.

He is the recipient of the Ralph Fabri Prize from the National Academy, a Purchase Award from the American Academy of Arts and Letters, an Andrew Mellon Foundation Grant and the John Sloan Dickey Center for International Understanding Faculty Travel and Research Grant for travel to the Georgian Republic. Collections include the Albright Knox Gallery of Art, Booz Allen Hamilton, The Currier Museum of Art and The Hood Museum of Art.