MIAMI HISPANIC CULTURAL ARTS CENTER

SERENA SCAPAGNINI
Synapses

December 5th 2015 / January 9th 2016

Opening Reception: Saturday, December 5th, 8 pm

Miami Hispanic Cultural Arts Center and Grupo Mahs are pleased to
announce Synapses a solo exhibition by Serena Scapagnini.

Curated by Miguel Angel Hernandez Santana.

Serena Scapagnini’s most recent work focus on neurons.

Rhythm, combined with the transparency of the paper, defines an

interior landscape inspired by fluorescent neuroimaging and evokes
both the synapse and the intuition of our own light. Synapses is a
project dedicated to the mind and It has been developed in
collaboration with the Higley Lab - Program in Cellular Neuroscience of
the Yale School of Medicine, New York.

The exhibition includes several works that have been presented for
the first time in the US. Among those, Now has been prompted and
includes an original in vivo video, unpublished before. Devotion is
outlined as an inner pulse that combines the growth of the living
forms in their spontaneous tension to ascend. The ascentional
function of a logarithmic spiral is what describes it.
The painting matter which is dense and stratified at the lower end
grows into eteric forms rarefying and dissolving into the white. The
dendritic branches are treated through different media, that allow the
images to dissolve and the layers of colour surrender to the white face
of the paper.

The paper has become an essential component of her current

paintings because of its transparency and delicacy in response to the
smallest chromatic operation. The support is specifically prepared in
an acid solution in order to facilitate the image’s rarefaction. Through
the variation of density, she unrolls hyperboles of increasing white.
Thus the possibility of thoughtlessness that approaches an instant of
interior silence.

Brain activity is observed starting from the electrical and biochemical

signaling within neurons dendritic arbors that form our thoughts.
Going beyond them, her work suggests to experience the mind as an
instrument of trascendence.
Serena Scapagnini was born in 1983 in Rome, Italy. She graduated in
Semiotics and History of Religion at La Sapienza Univesity, Rome and
she began her art education in Paris (Paris VIII)  and then New York,
where she studied at the School of Visual Arts.
Her work has been shown and collected in United States, India,
Sweden, Hungary, Italy. 
She lives and works in Rome.

For further informations:

@mailmuseum
Miami Hispanic Cultural Arts Center
111 SW 5th Ave - Miami, FL 33130
PHONE: (305) 549-7711

mahsgrupo@gmail.com

www.serenascapagnini.com
Artist Biography

2015
SYNAPSES, Miami Hispanic Cultural Arts Center, Miami – FL. USA
Curated by Miguel Angel Hernandez Santana

EXPO ARTE, Villa Bagatti Valsecchi, Milano _ Italy

Curated by Vittorio Sgarbi

Devotion, Art in service of Truth

Gallery Art Positive - a Unit of BCAH - New Delhi _ India
Curated by Ina Puri

2014
Entwined Landscapes, Museo Civico, Rivisondoli _ Italy
Curated by Fiona Liberatore and Pier Luigi Terio

Serena Scapagnini, L’Onda, Cella Septichora Museum _ Pecs, Hungary

World Heritage, UNESCO site. Curated by Luca Keseru and Monika
Zsikla, within Art Moments Festival and supported by Zsolnay Museum

L’Onda, First Hungarian Parliament Building / Istituto Italiano di

Cultura, Budapest _ Hungary
Curated by Luca Keseru, within Art Moments Festival

2010 
The New Order Beauty, Palette Art Gallery, New Delhi _ India
Curated by Vibha Galhotra

2009 
Sounds from the Castle, Tjolöholm Castle
‘Italy-Sweden: Cultural Collaboration through Contemporary Art’
Fjärås, Goteborg _ Sweden
Curated by Oscar Aschan
Supported by the Italian Cultural Institute of Stockholm

Risalita 500 Sotterranei di San Francesco, Siena _ Italy

a cura di Fabio Mazzieri

Biennale di Arte Contemporanea di Genova, 

Palazzo Stella, Genova _ Italy
Curated by Mario Napoli

2008 
GEN NEXT III, Aakriti Art Gallery, Kolkata _ India
Curated by Vikram Bachhawat.
V_Day. New Orleans Superdome, New Orleans _ USA
Curated by Eve Ensler
Supported by the Italian Cultural Institute of Los Angeles

2007 
S.V.A. Exhibition, New York _ USA
Awards
2009. Tjolöholm Art Prize, Goteborg _ Sweden 
work: La Cattedrale di Hildesheim
2009. Biennale di Arte Contemporanea di Genova, first prize Genova _
Italy  
work: Fugacita’
2006. Mario Moderni Art Award, Roma _ Italy
work: Cerc(hi)ando

Residencies
2014. Bajaj Capital Art House (BCAH), New Delhi _ India 
2013. Studi di Armonia, “Art in Progress. Cantieri del Contemporaneo”
A cura di Alfredo Pirri, Centro Visita Cupone – Parco Nazionale della
Sila _ Italy.
2009. Tjolöholm Castle Residency for Artists, Goteborg _ Sweden
2008. Emami Chisel Art (ECA) Art Camp
Kolkata _ India.
2007. Painting and Mixed Media Program, School of Visual Arts
New York _USA
2005. Universitee de Vincennes, Paris VIII Saint Denis 
Paris _ France