PHILLIP SCARPONE
Seraphin Gallery is pleased to welcome Phillip Scarpone to Philadelphia. Scarpone recently accepted an artist-in-residence fellowship at the University of Delaware and graduated this year with a Masters of Fine Arts degree with distinction from the University of Georgia. He is a multidisciplinary artist, focusing primarily on sculpture and installation, creating conceptual work that leads the viewer to question and reflect the elements of space and memory.
His work characterizes the aspects of both elegance and rawness. The finished forms of his work exhibit a pleasing visual rhythm resulting in a preciousness that one would not normally bestow upon the materials present. Seraphin Gallery has been impressed with the power and independence of his works, they have the ability to, at once, encapsulate the viewer with their sensory and narrative qualities.
Through construction, Scarpone finds answers to his questions of urban life and past experiences. The artist’s inspirations and influences include artists from the Arte Povera movement, especially Giuseppe Penone and Jannis Kounellis, and Edward Kienholz. The Arte Povera artists redefined art in the 1960s in Italy, recalling the Dada period and the impact of Marcel Duchamp.
Phillip Scarpone has been awarded several grants and scholarships during the course of his career to explore the sphere of retrospection in fabrication. These include The Dean’s Award, The Mary Rosenblatt Scholarship, Travel Grant, Public Art Grant, the Individual Artist Opportunity Grant, the NEA Established Artist Grant, and Frank-Ratchye Studio for Creative Inquiry, Art at the Frontier Grant. He is also the recipient of several awards and recognition from juried shows and competitions.
