Salerno studied on a scholarship at the Art Students League in New York under Kimon Nicolaides; at the Academie de la Grande Chaumiere in Paris; at the Escuela de Pintura y Escultura in Mexico City; and at the University of the State of New York. After World War II, during which he served in the Army Air Corps, he had his first one artist show at the Weyhe Gallery in New York. In 1948, he won a Tiffany Foundation Grant. He has taught at Adelphi College and, in 1964, was appointed to the faculty of the City College of New York. He married the painter Frances Christoph in 1952. He is represented in the collections of the Wadsworth Athenaeum, Hartford; the Museum of the Rhode Island School of Design; St. Simons Episcopal Church, Staten Island, New York; the New York Racing Association, Aqueduct, New York; the Grand Rapids Art Museum; and the Kalamazoo Art Museum, among others. He was a member of the Audubon Artists; the Sculptors Guild; the National Sculpture Society; the American Association of University Professors; and the Edward MacDowell Association.
