Serena Bocchino is an American contemporary abstract artist whose dynamic practice spans painting, sculpture, and installation. Rooted in Abstract Expressionism, jazz music, and the Fluxus movement, her work transforms sound into visual form, using color, rhythm, and movement to create immersive, expressive compositions. A synesthete, Bocchino experiences sound as color and form, a phenomenon that deeply informs her artistic language and allows her to create works that transcend traditional sensory boundaries.
Bocchino’s career took shape in New York, where she gained early recognition through the prestigious PS1/MoMA International Studio Residency Program, which led to her debut solo exhibition in Rome, Italy. Over the years, she has received numerous accolades, including the Pollock-Krasner Foundation Grant, the Artists Space/Artists Grant, the Art Matters Grant, the Brodsky Center Printmaking Residency, and the Basil Alkazzi Award, USA. She has also been nominated for the Louis Comfort Tiffany Foundation Award and the AVA Award and has received multiple New Jersey State Council
on the Arts Fellowships in both Painting and Drawing.
Her work has been exhibited internationally, with major exhibitions in Europe and Asia. In 2021, the Nicolaysen Art Museum presented a mid-career retrospective, acquiring two of her paintings along with a site-specific suspended sculpture she created during her mini residency at the museum. In 2022, the Museo Italo Americano in San Francisco acquired two of her paintings following her solo exhibition. She also participated in an international exhibition at the Taoxichuan Art Museum of China’s Central Academy of Fine Arts (CAFA), where the museum acquired two sculptures, one site-specific installation, and one painting for their permanent collection.
Bocchino’s work has received significant critical acclaim, with reviews in The New York Times, ARTnews, The New Yorker, The Village Voice, Brooklyn Rail, Art in America, Newsday, The San Francisco Art Examiner, ArtCritical, On Verge Magazine, and The Star-Ledger. Her art has been the subject of multiple short films, including Observer Highway Revisited, directed by Monica Scharf, which was featured at the Museum of Modern Art’s International Film Festival. In 2015, a comprehensive monograph on her work was released, authored by art historian Lisa A. Banner, with contributions from art writer/poet Jonathan Goodman and Chinese Art Specialist Lily Zhang. The introduction was written by Kathleen Goncharov, Curator of the Boca Raton Museum of Art.
The 2023 exhibition Serena Bocchino: Lyrical Roar at Ivy Brown Gallery in New York was accompanied by a hardcover, full-color monograph spanning over 220 pages, featuring insightful essays by Barbara MacAdam, curator Joseph Knight, print publisher Greg Smith, and gallery owner Ivy Brown. The publication provides an in-depth exploration of Bocchino’s artistic vision, process, and the evolving themes in her work.
In 2024, Bocchino was invited to exhibit her work digitally enlarged in Times Square, New York, where it was televised globally every hour for 24 hours. This large-scale public installation further cemented her presence at the intersection of contemporary art and urban culture, bringing her vibrant, music-inspired
visuals to a worldwide audience.
Her large-scale public art commissions include a significant project at Penn Station, Newark (2019–2020), where she transformed a high-traffic transit hub into an immersive art experience.
Bocchino’s innovative use of color, gesture, and the concept of seeing sound—rooted in her synesthetic perception—continues to push the boundaries of abstraction. Her work engages audiences in complex dialogues, creating visual compositions that bridge sensory experiences, emotion, and movement.
PUBLIC COLLECTIONS
Art in Embassies Program, Lima Peru
Art in Embassies Program, Washington DC
Bergen Museum of Art and Science, Paramus NJ
The Bronx Museum of the Arts, New York, NY
Duff & Phelps, Chicago, IL
Forrester Morrison, New York, NY
Fidelity Investments Harborside Jersey City, NJ
IBJ Schroder Bank & Trust, New York NY
Islip Art Museum, East Islip, NY
Janssen Pharmaceuticals, Warrenville,NJ
Jersey City Museum, Jersey City, NJ
Johnson & Johnson, New Brunswick, NJ
KPG Peat Marwick, Minneapolis, Minnesota
Lotus Museum, Bejing, China
McKinsey & Co. Incorporated, New York,NY
Moelis Int. New York, NY
Montclair Art Museum, Montclair, NJ
Morris Museum, Morristown, NJ
Museo Italo Americano, San Francisco CA
National Museum, Gdansk, Poland
Newark Public Library, Newark, NJ
New Jersey State Council on the Arts, Trenton, NJ
Nordstrom, Seattle, WA
Noyes Museum, Oceanville, NJ
Pensare, Palo Alto, CA
Pfizer Inc, Morris Plains, NJ
Pfizer Inc, New York, NY
Plaid Brothers, San Francisco, CA
Price Waterhouse and Coopers, New York, NY
PWR, Washington D.C.
Redback Networks Inc. Sunnyvale, CA
Saks Fifth Avenue, New York, NY
SmithsonianIrma and Bill Seitz Collection,WashingtonD.C.
Springfield Museum of Art, Springfield, Ohio
St. Louis Art Museum, St. Louis, Missouri
The Paterson Art Museum, Paterson, NJ
The Prudential, Newark, NJ
The Brodsky Center, Rutgers University, NJ
Taoxichuan Art Museum of CAFA, Jingdezhen,China
Trenton City Museum, Trenton, NJ
Trenton State Museum, Trenton, NJ
Warburg Pincus Ventures Inc. New York, NY
Westcliff Realities, Montreal, Quebec, Canada
Wildchild Inc. New York, NY
The Zimmerli Art Museum, New Brunswick, NJ
International Private Collections
