Jay Constantine was born in Cleveland, Ohio and received a BFA with honors at the Cleveland Institute of Art.  After receiving his MFA from Northern Illinois University, he briefly lived in Chicago.  He accepted a full time teaching position at Kendall College of Art and Design in 1980.  As a full professor of painting, Constantine was chair of the Fine Art/Painting program for 10 years.  As chair, he was instrumental in creating the undergraduate painting major and the MFA Program in Painting.

Jay Constantine has received many grants and awards including the Arts Midwest/Regional NEA Grant, ArtServe Michigan Creative Artist Grant, the Michigan Council for the Arts Creative Artist Grant, the Arts Foundation of Michigan, and he was an Artist in Residence at the Urban Institute of Contemporary Art. 

Constantine has had solo shows at the Dennos Museum, Northern Illinois University Museum, Urban Institute for Contemporary Art, Krasl Art Center, Jesse Besser Museum, Oklahoma State University, Lansing Art Gallery and many other venues.

He has been included in group exhibitions at the South Bend Regional Museum, Wood Street Gallery and the Contemporary Art Workshop in Chicago, Ann Arbor Art Association, Art Academy of Cincinnati, Spaces Gallery in Cleveland, Kresge Art Museum, Michigan Gallery, the Kalamazoo Institute of Art and many other art centers.

Constantine has received awards from the Kalamazoo Institute of Art, Grand Rapids Art Museum, Birmingham Bloomfield Art Center, Muskegon Museum of Art, and other venues.  His art is included in several collections including Grand Valley State University, the Kalamazoo Institute of Art, Grand Rapids Art Museum, Pratt Graphics Center and private collections.

Most recently, Constantine has exhibited at Brenda Taylor Gallery in the Chelsea gallery district and at Woodward Gallery in New York City. The Show at Woodward Gallery was reviewed in Artlog and Artbeat.  Also, his work was reproduced in the Fall 2012 issue of Direct Art Magazine vol. 19 published by Barnes and Noble.