By Silvana Cenci
Located in Surfside, FL
Silvana Cenci, internationally renowned explosive sculptor, died October 1, 2000 at her home in Gray.
Ms. Cenci, who was born in Florence, Italy, before World War II, married Stuart Church and moved to the U.S. permanently in 1959. She lived in Boston for many years, where she was a founder of the Brookline Art Center and a founding member of Summerthing. She exhibited widely throughout Europe and the U.S., and her work is in many museums and public and private collections.
After moving to the States, Ms. Cenci began working with new technologies from the aircraft industry, and with explosives. She moved to Northwood, NH, in the early 60s, and pursued and perfected her revolutionary experimentation with explosive sculpture in stainless steel. A native of Italy, she lived most of her life in America where she became internationally known, primarily for using dynamite to blast images into stainless steel and finishing some pieces with pure gold. The pieces created with dynamite were often utilized by architects. One piece titled “Wheels in Motion” hung in Boston’s South Station.
Education and Training
Accademia di Belle Arti, Florence, Italy
Academie de la Grande Chaumiere, Paris
Lewis and Clark College, Portland, Oregon
Selected Individual Exhibitions
Galleria Numero, Florence, Italy
Galleria San Carlo, Naples, Italy
Galleria d'Arte Totti, Milan, Italy
Galeria Beno, Zurich, Switzerland
Nova Gallery, Boston
Weeden Gallery, Boston
Capricorn Gallery, New York City
Roach-Hoffman Gallery, Naples, Florida
Bristol Art Museum, Bristol, Rhode Island, retrospective
Frank Tanzer Gallery, Boston
Symphony Hall, Boston
Musica Viva, Cambridge, Massachusetts
Los Llanos Gallery, Santa Fe, New Mexico
Northern Arizona University, Flagstaff
Selected Group Exhibitions
"Oregon Artists," Lincoln County Art Center, Lincoln, Oregon
"Exhibition of Painting and Sculpture," Henry Art Gallery, Seattle, Washington
"West Coast Sculptors," Portland Art Museum, Portland, Oregon
"Mostra Nazionale del Bianco e Nero," Museo Civico Castello Urasino, Catania, Italy
"New England Art Today," Northwestern University, Boston
"New England Sculptors Association," Boston City Hall, Boston
"Silvana Cenci and Calvin Libby," Bristol Art Museum, Bristol, Rhode Island
"Adele Seronde and Silvana Cenci," Weeden Gallery, Boston
"Contemporary Italian Art-Italian Heritage," Boston City Hall, Boston, catalog
"Explosion of Form, Color, Imagination: Works by Silvana Cenci
Selected Awards
First Honorable Mention, "Design in Transit," Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority Competition, Institute of Contemporary Art, Boston, Massachusetts
Research in Creative Art Grant, Blanche E. Colman Foundation, Boston, Massachusetts
Statue of Victory, World Culture Prize for Letters, Arts and Sciences, Centro Studi e Ricerche delle Nazioni, Salsomaggiore Terme, Italy
Harvard-pedigreed architect Harlow Carpenter built the Bundy in 1962. The venue's first decade was lively with exhibitions that featured a large cast of artists, including Dino Basaldella, Judith Brown, Silvana Cenci, Xavier Corbero...
Category
Mid-20th Century Modern Gold Sculptures