| Dennis Bertram was born in Valkenburg, the Netherlands. As a child he emigrated with his parents and brother to the United States where they settled in Evansville, Indiana. He graduated from Indiana University with a major in zoology. Following college he attended Washington University School of Medicine and Johns Hopkins University graduating with degrees in medicine and public health. He has held faculty positions at the Johns Hopkins University and the University at Buffalo, New York, where he is currently employed, and in the 1980s served as Assistant Vice President for Professional Education at the national office of the American Cancer Society.
He showed an interest in art at an early age, but neither his grade school nor high school provided art education. While in college he did enroll in a figure drawing course without taking the usual prerequisites. It was during the mid 1990s that he had the time to take undergraduate studio classes in drawing and painting at Buffalo State Colege in Buffalo, New York, and he began entering shows, joining art societies, and participating in artist residencies. In 2008, he was among 66 artists selected from across New York State to participate in the New York Foundation for the Arts MARK program, a program to teach professional artists more of the business side of art. He maintains a studio at Buffalo Arts Studio.
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