» Serena Bocchino – Inaugural Art Project at Newark Penn Station initiated by NJ Transit and NJSCA
Serena Bocchino was born in Englewood, N.J. in 1960. She currently lives and works in New Jersey.In 1985 she received an M.A. in painting from New York University, having studied with Robert Kaupelis, Collette and Adele Weber among others. While a graduate student she was employed as studio assistant to Susan Rothenberg at her Tribecca studio where she continued to work for six years.
Selected in 1986 for the 4×4 Artists Pick Artists exhibition at the Jus de Pomme Gallery where she later received her first one person show, she was that same year presented at SoHo 20 Gallery in the exhibition entitled New Visions which featured her work along with that of Lorna Simpson and Candida Alvarez. One year later, as the youngest artist selected, she was granted a studio space at the P.S. 1 Studio Residency program in Long Island City, N.Y.. 1990 saw her first international exhibition at Studio Bocchi in Rome.
Meanwhile, in 1989, Bocchino had been nominated for both the Tiffany Award and an AVA award and was a finalist for the Prix de Roma. Contemporaneously she had received an award from the Pollock Krasner Foundation and, emerging from that, an exhibition at Penine Hart Gallery in SoHo. The following year, in addition to her exhibition in Rome, Bocchino received the Basil Alkazzi Award; the only American artist to receive the Award.
Various exhibitions and awards have since followed Serena Bochino and her work has been the subject of three documentary films. One of these, Observer Highway Revisited premiered at the Museum of Modern Art in New York and the most recent film entitled A Dream of Blue was the 2009 winner of the Best Inspirational Film award at the New York International Independent Film and Video Festival.