Since 2018, the Siena Art Institute has collaborated in a residency partnership co-sponsored by Pratt Institute’s School of Design and Pratt Fine Arts. Over the years, the Siena Art Institute has had the pleasure of working alongside a prestigious and diverse cohort of professional artists, offering its students, staff, and local community the opportunity to engage with the artists’ practice and sensibility.
2018
Susan Cianciolo (Visual artist, illustrator and fashion designer)
Susan Cianciolo’s works are composite things. Their material elements include fragments of sculptures, drawings, costumes, and meaningful units of ephemera from her life and work – the difference between which, for Cianciolo, is and has always been willfully eschewed. Her exhibition at Modern Art includes a selection of filled boxes that Cianciolo terms ‘kits’, a prototypical format of her work, which are assemblages of items from her archives that are reworked, and reformulated for public presentation as a tool-box cum biographical archive. Cianciolo’s exhibition will also include new body of sculptural works, tapestries, and drawings that characterize the many physical forms her work has taken across the arc of her oeuvre.
Since the beginning of her career as a fashion designer in the mid 1990s, Susan Cianciolo has worked across the boundaries established by her chosen disciplines. Between 1995 and 2001, working under her label RUN, she created eleven ranges of hand-made, unique garments and displayed them in runway shows that incorporated collaborations between music, film, fashion, performance and hospitality. The term ‘collection’ for Cianciolo’s RUN was as much about a collection of people, or of talents, as it was about the release of a collection every season. This expansive, collective approach has persisted in her work, which is now shown in museums and galleries, as much as through live performances, printed publications, and workshops.
Susan Cianciolo was born in 1969 in Providence, RI, and she lives and works in New York City. From 1995–2001 Cianciolo produced her critically-acclaimed collection RUN. More recently, her work has been the subject of solo exhibitions at Yale Union, Portland, OR, USA (2016); 356 S. Mission Road, Los Angeles, CA, USA (2016); Bridget Donahue, New York, NY, USA (2015); and Alleged Gallery, New York, NY, USA (2001). Her work has been included in group exhibitions at the Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, NY, USA (2016); The Swiss Institute, New York, NY, USA (2016); Interstate Projects, New York, NY, USA (2016); White Columns, New York, NY, USA (2016); MoMA PS1, Long Island City, NY, USA (2015); and Portikus Museum, Frankfurt, Germany. She is Assistant Professor of Fashion at the Pratt Institute in New York.
Nat Meade (Visual artist)
Nat Meade (b. 1975, Greenfield, Massachusetts, Grew up in Portland, Oregon) has exhibited his work in solo and group exhibitions nationally and internationally. He mounted recent solo exhibitions at the Froelck Gallery in Portland, Oregon the Schneider Museum in Ashland, Oregon and a recent group show at the Breeder Gallery in Athens Greece. Meade was awarded a residency in the Sharpe Walentas Studio Program 2016-17. His work has been reviewed in publications, such as Juxtapoz Magazine, Maake Magazine, and Hyperallergic. Meade holds an MFA from Pratt Institute, Brooklyn, NY, and a BFA from the University of Oregon, Eugene, OR. He attended the Skowhegan School for Painting and Sculpture 2009. He is currently Assistant Chair of Fine Arts at Pratt Institute.
2019
Curtis Mitchell (Visual artist)
Curtis Mitchell is an American artist who works in video installation, sculpture, and photography.
His recent work centers around setting up visual dialogues in an ongoing series of visual installations. Mitchell has had solo exhibitions at venues including MoMA PS1, the Mattress Factory, Pittsburgh; the Sculpture Center, Cleveland; KX Gallery, Germany; Galerie Marc Jancou, Zurich; as well as White Columns, Andrea Rosen Gallery, Esso Gallery, and Martos Gallery in New York.
Mitchell has participated in numerous group exhibitions around the world, including MoMA PS1, the New Museum, the Landesmuseum, Austria; the Mucsarnok Palace of Art, Budapest; the Aldrich Museum, Connecticut; and the Mexican Cultural Institute in New York. His works are in several public and permanent collections, including the Walker Art Museum, the New York Public Library, the Boston Museum of Fine Arts, and the Lannan Foundation.
Curtis Mitchell has been selected for a residency at the Siena Art Institute in partnership with the Pratt Institute, where he teaches at the School of Fine Arts.
Robin Mollicone (Jewelry designer)
Robin Mollicone is an American artist and jewelry designer. She received her B.F.A. Fine Arts/Fibers from Syracuse University and exhibits her work in New York City.
Robin Mollicone has been selected for a residency at the Siena Art Institute in partnership with the Pratt Institute, where she teaches at the School of Design. She leads courses in fashion jewelry design, sustainable practices, and served as an internship adviser for fashion students.
Artist’s Statement:
One-of-a-Kind.
Robin’s jewelry is made 100% by hand, making each piece one-of-a-kind and made-to-order. Over the years her process has been refined and streamlined, but the foundation of her craft has remained the same.
It begins with a stone.
As part of her design process, Robin travels to gem and mineral shows in search of unique and special stones and crystals to incorporate into her collections. The stones are semi-precious and are hand-selected from small, local, family-owned businesses that Robin has worked with over many years and has established personal relationships with. The intention of the healing and metaphysical properties of all stones are thoughtfully considered throughout the design process.
Leather.
All of the leather work is cut, manipulated and stitched meticulously by hand with a Glover needle and thread.
The Peyote Stitch.
Each stone is “set” onto the leather with a hand sewn stitch that weaves the small beads, one by one, around the stone and through one another, known as a Peyote stitch. Inspired by Native American artwork and craft, this technique was learned on Robin’s travels around the country and has become the very foundation of her body of work.
2021
Nanette Carter (Visual artist)
Nanette Carter has been selected for a residency at the Siena Art Institute in partnership with Pratt Institute, where she has recently retired from teaching in the Fine Arts Department.
Born in Columbus, Ohio Nanette Carter spent most of her childhood in Montclair, New Jersey. Her first art classes started at the age of six in the Montclair Art Museum. She attended Oberlin College majoring in Studio Art and Art History. During her junior year she studied abroad in Perugia, Italy, traveling through Europe and Northern Africa. Nanette received her MFA at Pratt Institute of Art in Brooklyn, New York. She has recently retired as an Associate Adjunct Professor teaching Drawing at Pratt.
Over the years Nanette has received several grants which include the New York Foundation for the Arts, National Endowment for the Arts, The Jerome Foundation, The Pollock-Krasner Foundation, The Adolph and Esther Gottlieb Foundation and more. She has had international solo exhibitions in Japan, Syria, Cuba and Italy. She is now represented by the Berry Campbell Gallery in Chelsea, NY and the Ami Kanoko Gallery in Osaka, Japan.
Working with intangible ideas around contemporary issues has been Nanette’s modus operandi. How to present these ideas in an abstract visual vocabulary of form, line and color has peeked her imagination for decades.
2022
Claire McKinney (Fashion designer)
Claire McKinney has been selected for a residency at the Siena Art Institute in partnership with the Pratt Institute, where she teaches at the School of Design.
Claire McKinney is an independent fashion designer. She received a B.F.A in Fashion Design from Pratt Institute and exhibits her work in New York City.
Guided by found materials and experimental textile treatments, McKinney’s work is primarily made to order and one-of-a kind in nature, exploring the instinctive artistry and nuance behind tailor-made garment creation.
McKinney co-founded the label SC103 in 2019 with her roommate, close friend and collaborator of 8 years, Sophie Andes Gascon. The label has presented three collections, the first two in the format of open-door runway show performances with live accompaniment in NYC. Their Spring-Summer 2020 collection Bonds celebrated the distinctive personality of the designers’ shared living and studio space and the symbiotic energy and friendship it cultivated. SC103 presented its second runway show in New York in February 2020, entitled Yours In Rock, with live accompaniment from a teen rock band. Leather-linked armor in garment and accessory form was incorporated into both collections and remains an area of study as McKinney continues to develop new work.
Through this residency McKinney is looking to explore Tuscany’s history of hand craftsmanship, including leatherworking, glass, and textiles. McKinney is continually interested in region-specific utility wear, including traditional and modern uniform for manufacturing, trade and agricultural industries.
Matt Nolen (Visual Artist)
Matt Nolen is a studio artist living and working in New York City and Narrowsburg, NY. His work has been exhibited internationally and is in numerous private and public collections including: The Cooper-Hewitt Museum, NYC., The Museum of Arts and Design, NYC., The Newark Museum, NJ., The Houston Museum of Fine Art, TX., The de Young Museum, San Francisco, CA. and The Everson Museum of Art, Syracuse, NY .
Nolen’s work has been written about and reviewed in many periodicals and books including: The New York Times, American Ceramics, Ceramics Art and Perception, Masters of Craft, Confrontational Clay, Postmodern Ceramics and Painted Clay.
Nolen has been awarded a New York Foundation for the Arts Fellowship, Mid Atlantic Foundation (regional NEA) Fellowship and international residencies in Israel and China. His residency at the Kohler Co.’s Art/Industry Program resulted in a handmade public washroom that has been named “Best Restroom in America” by the Cintas Corp. and among “The 10 Best Bathrooms in the World” by the Travel Channel.
He has recently served as President of the Board of Trustees for Watershed Center for the Ceramic Arts in Newcastle, Maine and is Adjunct Professor of Art at New York University, Hunter College, and Ceramics Area Coordinator at Pratt Institute.
2023
Dean Sidaway (Fashion designer)
Dean Sidaway is Associate Professor in the Fashion Design Department at Pratt Institute’s School of Design.
Dean Sidaway holds a B.A. (Hons) in Fashion from Ravensbourne, and an M.A. in Fashion from Central Saint Martins. Sidaway first gained broader industry recognition with his breakthrough collection. He has worked internationally as a designer and consultant, with experience that includes roles with Calvin Klein and Clements Ribeiro. His 2011 collection “The Revenge” was shown during London Fashion Week’s fall runway presentations. His work has been featured in major publications including Vogue Italia, W Magazine, and i-D Magazine. Dean Sidaway has taught previously at Central Saint Martins, University for the Creative Arts, and Savannah College of Art and Design.
Analia Segal (Visual artist)
Analia Segal studio practice is driven by research and conceptual concerns that integrate a dynamic, wide and ever-expanding range of mediums and processes, from sculpture and installation to photography, video, drawing, sound and most recently performance. The works intend to reveal her ever-present preoccupations of what defines “home”, what shapes one’s identity, what constructs the self as well as the shifting codes that define the migrant and female experience.
She is currently pursuing her PHD at Universidad Politécnica de Madrid, and a Joan Mitchel and Guggenheim Fellow, and has received the following distinctions: Fulbright Foundation, NYSCA (2023) , Bienal Nacional de Diseño (Facultad de Arquitectura, Diseño y Urbanismo -FADU-, Buenos Aires, Argentina, 2013); Fundación Konex (Buenos Aires, Argentina, 2012); Pollock- Krasner Foundation (New York, USA, 2004); New York Foundation for the Arts -NYFA- (New York, USA, 2004); 100% Design (London, England, 2004) and Fundación Antorchas (Buenos Aires, Argentina, 1996). Her works have been exhibited extensively both nationally and internationally, as well as published in specialized magazines, catalogs , books and it is included in private and public collections.
Graduated as a Graphic Designer form the University of Buenos Aires and received her Masters Degree in Art from New York University and is currently a doctoral candidate at the Universidad Politécnica de Madrid. Born in Rosario-Argentina, lives and works in New York City since 1999.
2024
Borinquen Gallo (Visual Artist)
Borinquen Gallo is an Italian-Puerto Rican Bronx-based artist whose work delves into themes of beauty, community, socio-cultural systems and structures through sculpture and installations made using a range of repurposed materials.
Gallo received her BFA in Painting and Sculpture from the Cooper Union for The Advancement of Science and Art, and her MFA in Painting from Hunter College.
She has received numerous awards including the Sol Shaviro Award (2015), The Marion Netter Fellowship (2010), and the Doris Liebowitz Art Educator Award (2009). Residencies include The Children Museum of Manhattan (2019), The Bronx Museum of the Arts AIM Program (2015), the Vermont Studio Center (2013) and The Cooper Union Artist Residency (2011).
Gallo has exhibited at Burning in Water Gallery, BRIC Arts Media, Smack Mellon, The Bronx Museum of the Arts, Wave Hill Sunroom Project Space, The National Academy Museum, the Queens Museum, Columbia University, The Cooper Union and Queens College. In addition, she has worked on curatorial projects with BAM Fischer, and Pratt Institute. She is currently Adjunct Associate Professor of Art and Design Education at Pratt Institute in New York.
John Monti (Visual Artist)
John Monti is a sculptor and educator whose work explores the intersections between seductive beauty and the melancholic. Taking inspiration from historical botanical drawings, flora, the baroque, ornament, religious objects and custom- car culture his works are metaphorical abstractions, suggesting ineffable dense amalgams of twisting vines and flora, each playing out its own psychodrama.Often his sculptures are cast in resin and surfaced with glitter, candy colors and various finishes each creating a crossroad where beauty and seduction take a fateful turn. Monti received a BS from Portland State University in painting and sociology, and later an MFA in sculpture from Pratt Institute.
Monti has exhibited extensively both in museums and galleries, has been commissioned for sited public works and set designs for dance. Exhibitions include the Brooklyn Museum, Weatherspoon Art Museum, Sculpture Center, White Columns, Artists Space, Elizabeth Harris Gallery, Curt Marcus Gallery and the Wakita Museum of Art, Japan. His work is included in major private and public collections, including The Metropolitan Museum of Art, The Brooklyn Museum, Yale University Art Gallery, The Weatherspoon Art Museum, The Eli Broad Family Foundation, The Portland Art Museum and the Wakita Museum of Art, Japan.
Grants include the Louis Comfort Tiffany Foundation, the Joan Mitchell Foundation, the Pollock Krasner Fellowship Grant, The New York Foundation for the Arts, The Rockefeller Foundation and the National Endowment for the Arts. Monti’s work has been featured in many publications, including Artforum, Art in America, Sculpture Magazine, Arts Magazine, Artnews, The Los Angeles Times and The New York Times.
Monti lives in Brooklyn, NY and is Professor of Graduate Fine Arts at Pratt Institute.
Gene Lakin (Costume Designer)
Gene K. Lakin is a costume designer, educator, and scholar whose work spans theater, film, and higher-education instruction. He currently teaches across undergraduate and graduate levels at Parsons School of Design (The New School), where he has served for over two decades, and holds an adjunct position in the Department of Fashion Design at Pratt Institute.
Gene earned his M.F.A. from Yale University and his B.F.A. from the University of North Carolina (Winston-Salem). Early in his career he worked as a costume designer for theatrical productions — a practice that continues to inform his pedagogical approach to design. His credits include stage productions and collaborative work in film and television, drawing on historical research and hands-on construction techniques.
A dedicated teacher and program developer, Gene has led summer programs and international workshops, helped create high-school-level fashion curricula, and mentored students in national competitions. His classroom emphasizes narrative-driven design: students learn to treat fashion as a form of storytelling that intersects with history, identity, and social movements. Current academic interests include fashion’s role in the marginalization and normalization of communities, and the evolving language of costume in contemporary media.
2025
Gregory Drasler (Visual Artist)
Gregory Drasler graduated from the University of Illinois and has lived and painted in New York City for the past 40 years. On Moving to New York in 1983 he began showing at the New Museum of Contemporary Art, New York, NY, and has painted and exhibited regularly since, most recently with an exhibition titled External Drive at the Betty Cuningham Gallery in 2023. Prior exhibitions include shows at The Queens Museum, Queens New York, the Center for Contemporary Art in Chicago, The Whitney Stamford, in Stamford, CT, the Carnegie Museum of Art, Pittsburgh, PA, and Artist Space, New York, NY among others.
Gregory Drasler is the recipient of a Pollock Krasner Foundation Grant, a Guggenheim Fellowship, and a National Endowment of the Arts fellowship, a Distinguished Alumni Award from the University of Illinois, among others. For the past 20 years Drasler has taught painting and lectured at several schools including Princeton University, Williams College, Hofstra University, Montclair State University. For the past 20 years he has taught painting at the Pratt Institute of Art.
Kerry Ryan (Fashion Designer)
Fashion Designer, Design Entrepreneur – Kerry Ryan has worked in all facets of the Fashion Business since graduation. With expertise in design and technical, she has worked in Women’s, Men’s and Children’s buisnesses as a designer of luxury brands and creation of her own brands. Her work has been featured in WWD, T Magazine and Vanity Fair. She continues to work on her own sustainable brand and consults for many startup brands on working through barriers of production and design.
Christopher Radcliff (Filmmaker)
Christopher Radcliff is a filmmaker based in the United States. After receiving his MFA from the Pratt Institute, he began screening his work at film festivals and contemporary art venues internationally. His films have been presented at Cannes Film Festival, Sundance Film Festival, Berlinale, and the Museum of Modern Art, New York, NY. Most recently, his feature The Strange Ones was distributed by Vertical Entertainment and has been featured on major streaming platforms. Prior exhibitions and screenings include programs at the Rotterdam International Film Festival, BAMcinemaFest in Brooklyn, NY, the Hammer Museum in Los Angeles, CA, and Anthology Film Archives in New York, NY.
Radcliff is the recipient of several awards including a MacDowell Colony Fellowship, a Jerome Foundation grant, and support from the Independent Filmmaker Project (IFP). He has served as visiting faculty and guest lecturer at institutions such as Columbia University, the New School, and the Maryland Institute College of Art. For the past several years, he has taught film production and theory at the Pratt Institute.
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