Available for commission
Serena Bocchino
New York, NY
"International Artist that transforms music into lyrical abstraction, intimate size to public art"
Serena Bocchino is an American contemporary artist. Bocchino’s studio practice investigates the intersection of abstraction and expressionism with a distinct focus on music, movement, and identity. Bocchino’s work has been exhibited internationally in many solo and group exhibitions. She has received many awards including, Pollock Krasner Foundation Award, PS1/MoMA Studio Residency, the Basil Alkazzi Award USA, and The New Jersey State Council on the Arts Fellowships in both Painting and Drawing. Most recently, NJ Transit and NJSCA commissioned Bocchino to create four public art installations at Newark Penn Station and is preparing for two upcoming solo museum exhibitions.
Q&A
How do your pieces come to life? Tell us one interesting thing about your creative process?
"My pieces come to life when I am ‘at one with the work” - which is an imperative part of my process in the studio.
Each piece, no matter how simple or complex goes through stages of creation. The idea is the beginning. Next, is a color, image, mark, or composition. Then, as the piece develops, the original idea takes form - not as initially planned - but as it should be. This process is not a formula or recipe - only the pure act of art-making.
The final piece is usually quite different from the original idea and that is the very special part of making “art” rather than craft or design. It is only that unexplainable part of creation that makes the work uniquely alive!
One interesting thing about my creative process is the element of surprising myself during the creative process.
For example, one of my series, the Mirror Series, came about in a very unexpected way. As I was pouring a beautiful colored paint on the canvas, I decided to allow less time for the paint to dry before pouring a new color. The end result was a composition of interwoven pours that I really enjoyed. This experience allowed me to learn more about the viscosity of enamel paint and how its drying time was different as it related to different colors. This timing was critical to how the different paint colors would lay on top of each other and blend or not blend during the painting process.
Another surprise was during the creation of the paintings for the Mirror Series, While I was working with organic shapes I decided that I wanted to emphasize the nature of each shape and I knew that a geometric element would be the solution. I realized that I had some circular mirrors in my studio for another project. I decided to insert a variety of mirrors directly into the paint surface at very strategic places to emphasize different parts of the composition. This juxtaposition of the mirrors with the enamel on canvas resulted in a composition of contrasting shapes; overall, this created very successful images in terms of color, line, and shape. Furthermore, the philosophical aspect of mirrors created a more in-depth meaning to each work created in this series, as it brings the audience (through their reflection) truly into the piece. I have continued to use this discovery and method in current work.
Finally, I can be in my studio working and always find something new or different in what I am working on at the moment. This continual experience of discovery and surprise in the studio is the perpetual element that propels my studio practice."
Each piece, no matter how simple or complex goes through stages of creation. The idea is the beginning. Next, is a color, image, mark, or composition. Then, as the piece develops, the original idea takes form - not as initially planned - but as it should be. This process is not a formula or recipe - only the pure act of art-making.
The final piece is usually quite different from the original idea and that is the very special part of making “art” rather than craft or design. It is only that unexplainable part of creation that makes the work uniquely alive!
One interesting thing about my creative process is the element of surprising myself during the creative process.
For example, one of my series, the Mirror Series, came about in a very unexpected way. As I was pouring a beautiful colored paint on the canvas, I decided to allow less time for the paint to dry before pouring a new color. The end result was a composition of interwoven pours that I really enjoyed. This experience allowed me to learn more about the viscosity of enamel paint and how its drying time was different as it related to different colors. This timing was critical to how the different paint colors would lay on top of each other and blend or not blend during the painting process.
Another surprise was during the creation of the paintings for the Mirror Series, While I was working with organic shapes I decided that I wanted to emphasize the nature of each shape and I knew that a geometric element would be the solution. I realized that I had some circular mirrors in my studio for another project. I decided to insert a variety of mirrors directly into the paint surface at very strategic places to emphasize different parts of the composition. This juxtaposition of the mirrors with the enamel on canvas resulted in a composition of contrasting shapes; overall, this created very successful images in terms of color, line, and shape. Furthermore, the philosophical aspect of mirrors created a more in-depth meaning to each work created in this series, as it brings the audience (through their reflection) truly into the piece. I have continued to use this discovery and method in current work.
Finally, I can be in my studio working and always find something new or different in what I am working on at the moment. This continual experience of discovery and surprise in the studio is the perpetual element that propels my studio practice."
Serena Bocchino