Harnessing the Universe: Selected Works 2000-2015

HARNESSING THE UNIVERSE: SERENA BOCCHINO, SELECTED WORKS 2005-2015

J. Cacciola Gallery
November 20 – January 9, 2016
Artist reception: Friday, November 20th 6-8 pm
Exhibit location: 35 Mill Street Bernardsville, NJ 07924
Hours: Tuesday – Saturday, 10 am – 6 pm p: 908.204.1972

Serena Bocchino’s oeuvre extends out from the world as well as deep within it. She rides the rhythms of the external and internal universes, harnessing their cadences in abstract works that are as physical as they are visual. One can “see” the action of her hand, arm and body in the lines and shapes surging across the surfaces of canvas or paper. Within those actions, and their visual expression, is an understanding of the universal cycles of the transient moment becoming the expanding infinite.

But Bocchino’s images are not merely cold examinations through abstraction; her work also embodies emotion, encompassing the entire emotional spectrum from the dynamic to the delicate. To experience Bocchino’s work is to experience and emotional journey, a willingness to participate in an adventure that elicits as much thrill as peace, as much wonder as recognition. In this respect, her work recalls the New York School of Abstract Expressionists, especially the “action paintings” of Jackson Pollock. But where Pollock, and the New York School generally, were concerned with breaking the bounds of painting and re-configuring it from an outward observation to an inward one, Bocchino allows herself to leap back and forth from the internal universe to the external one, from the mind to the soul to the cosmos and back again.

Bocchino’s mastery of her media affords her the freedom to navigate this tricky ride. Her unconventional choice of enamel paint adds to the adventure. Her ability to control its properties, taking advantage of its natural gloss or sublimate that gloss into an overall texture, bespeaks an artist who respects discipline but uses it in rebellious ways. Whether in paint, graphite, or other applications, Bocchino takes their properties outside their traditions.

Serena Bocchino’s work has been favored with solo exhibitions in New York, New Jersey, San Francisco, New Orleans and elsewhere in the United States as well as in France and Italy. She has also been featured in significant group exhibitions nationally and in Europe, and is represented in important public and private collections. Her dynamic working method has been the subject of various film documentaries which were screened in such notable venues as the New York International Film and Video Festival, the Museum of Modern Art, and on PBS television.

J. Cacciola Gallery is proud to present the work of this respected and courageous artist, and to afford viewers the experience of accompanying Serena Bocchino as she harnesses the universe.