Siena Gillann Porta

Website: www.sienaporta.com or www.sienaporta.art

Social Media: FB, Instagram, LinkedIn. Email: sienaporta@gmail.com

1_Porta Siena Gillann _Fire, Blood and Schrodinger's Cat_view 1_, Mixed media_26 1 2 x25 x 25 -web.jpg

2_Porta Siena Gillann_Reflected in a Pan of Stars_Ceramic, acrylics,birchbark, light_120 h x 36 wx 36 d-web.jpg

3_Porta Siena Gillann_Like a flash of lightning in a summer cloud_Acrylic, polypropyline and aluminum_52 _x 48 _ x 72 -web.jpg

4_Porta Siena Gillann_Magical Thinking_Two sides of the same coin, view 1_Mixed media_65 _x28 _x28 -web.jpg

5_Porta Siena Gillann_Shikantaza(just sitting)_Acrylic sheet and pigment,polyurithane and styrene_108 h x 132 w x 60 d-web.jpg

6_Porta Siena Gillann_We are the 6th Extinction_Mixed media_84 h x28 w 8 d-web.jpg

STATEMENT

The imagery in my artwork is predominately theme-driven. Zen practice has shaped and informed my work for most of my adult life. More recently the art of Shukokai Karate has become a part of this narrative. As a breast cancer survivor since 2010, karate images have figured prominently in my body of work. I became a practitioner myself, earning a Kimura Shukokai Karate black belt in 2016 and a second degree Black Belt, in 2021.

The mechanics of anatomy and bodies in motion has always been a passionate interest of mine. Dancing and performing in a mime and ballet troupe and studying at The Martha Graham School in New York as a teenager developed my appreciation for the human body as an instrument of expression. In graduate school I was fortunate to be able to draw from cadavers at Hershey Medical School through a grant from a Pennsylvania Arts Council which advanced my academic understanding of body mechanics as an artist.

Utilizing contemporary media in my professional fine arts creation has become an essential part of my vision. Access to new materials and technology has been one of the most rewarding experiences of working as a Scenic Artist. Drawing, painting and sculptural processes grounded in both traditional and experimental methodologies has been fundamental to both my personal art-work and to my tenure as a professional scenic artist (USA829).

I always fall in love with my newest work and hope that it communicates powerfully to others. At its best I find creating artwork is discovery and joy, sometimes frustration and always a place where linear time stops.

SGP 2023

BIOGRAPHY

Siena Gillann Porta attended the Art Students League at 15, and then the School of Visual Arts and the New School in New York City. She earned a BS in Studio Arts from Brooklyn College CUNY while studying with Philip Pearlstein, Lee Bonticou, Lennart Anderson, Paul Gianfagna, Sylvia Stone and Lois Dodd. Awarded a Full Graduate Fellowship at The Pennsylvania State University, Porta earned her MFA in Sculpture.

Currently her work is represented by NOHO M55 Gallery in Chelsea,14 Sculptors Inc. NY, NY, The National Association of Women Artists (NAWA), The New York Society of Women Artists (NYSWA), New York Artists Circle (NYAC) and Inspiration Art Group International.

Porta has exhibited extensively in solo and group exhibitions throughout the U.S. and abroad at galleries and museums, with installations in New York City, the greater metropolitan area and U.S. national parks. Her university exhibitions include Notre Dame, Lehigh, Adelphi, the New Jersey City University, Manhattanville, Fairleigh Dickinson and NYU. Siena’s public collections include The City of Hveragerdi, Iceland, The Agricultural University of Iceland, St. Philip R.C. Church, Norwalk CT, The County of Rockland, NY and The Hafnarborg Cultural Museum, Iceland. Her installation “Bowing to the Cushion” was on loan at from 2001-2022.

As a Scenic Artist and Lead Scenic Artist since 1986, she created work for numerous Broadway productions, Feature films, Prime-time network television, Netflix and The Metropolitan Opera. She has taught as both an Adjunct Professor of Art and Adjunct Professor of Contemporary Art at Ramapo College of NJ., St. Thomas Aquinas College and Bergen Community College. Her biography is listed, among others, in Who's Who in America. Porta has received grants from The New York Foundation for the Arts, The United States Information Agency and The New York State Council on the Arts. Solo exhibitions include 14 Sculptors Gallery, Mercer St., NY and Noho Gallery W. 25th St., NY. She has been an Artist in Residence at Brisons Veor in Cornwall, England and Artist in Residence twice at Varmahlid Haus in Hveragerdi, Iceland. Reviews include The NY Times, The Wave, Gallery & Studio Magazine, Newsday, Spotlight Magazine, The New York Art Review, The Journal News and Women Artist’s News.

Selected exhibitions include; The Hammond Museum, The Taller Boricua Gallery “Evolution/Revolution”, NY, NY, Carter Burden Gallery, NY, NY, The Brother Chapman Gallery, Iona College, New Rochelle, NY, “Art in the Parks” 1. Highbridge Park, Manhattan, NY, 2. “On the Rock”, Rockaway National Seashore, Prince Street Gallery, NY, NY, “Memory” www.newyorksocietyofwomenartists.com, Blue Mountain Gallery, NY, NY, “Lost & Found” www.nyartistscircle.com, Leonia Sculpture Park, Leonia, NJ, The Hudson Valley Museum (HvMoca), Amherst College, MA - Hampden Gallery, The Akin Museum, St Peters Church, E. 54th Street, NY, The Howland Center in Beacon, NY, The Barrett Art Center, Poughkeepsie NY, The Zerillo - Marimo Gallery at NYU, Salem Art Works, Jacob Riis National Park at Ft. Tilden through RAA (Rockaway Artists Alliance), Lockwood-,Matthews Mansion - 14 Sculptors outdoor installation, Norwalk CT and Governors Island.

S.G.P. 2024