In the nineties she began to learn painting and traditional intaglio in Florence’s Academy. Thanks to a scholarship at Il Bisonte, international school of graphic arts, in Florence, she started to research into printmaking techniques and materials employed as a medium of expression. Etching and the relevant focus on incisive clarity became an important part of her practice revealing the complexity and beauty of the natural world. By returning to live in Sicily in 2003, teaching in the Academy of Fine arts in Palermo, was the starting point for a new experience and research in environmental issues. During those years her attention has shifted on the radicalization of the discourse on print and multiples in terms of public ecological sustainability, and she definitively reached out and research on materials and methods for non-toxic printmaking, working on these topics in the last fifteen years. A work starting from the basics, based on self-learning, with the aim of creating new, more environmentally didactic paths, including a special focus on safer working conditions, health, experimenting, interdisciplinarity and transversality. Looking for interlocutors, new experiences and creative challenges, she started several collaborations with international faculties of fine arts and researchers in Spain, France and USA.
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By pooling her experiences, she has written Incisione Sostenibile, nuovi materiali e metodi dell’area non-toxic, revised and updated in a second Materiali e Metodi per l’Incisione Sostenibile, alcune esperienze, 2015, both published by a small independent publisher from Palermo, Navarra editore.
She usually writes also various articles and texts in magazines, catalogs and art monographs on contemporary printmaking and artist’s book.
Collaborating as researcher and invited professor with national and international Universities such as the Italian Accademia di Belle Arti di Roma , Urbino and Firenze (2013, 2014, 2015);
and the international ones: Universidad de Barcelona (2009-2019); Universidad Politecnica de Valencia (2010); Universidad Complutense de Madrid (2016-17); Akademie der Bildenden Künste in Nürnberg (2016); School of Art and Design Berlin Weissensee (2014); Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Sul, Porto Alegre, Brasil (2018).
This made it possible to broaden the network of relationship and to discuss topics in wich printmaking intersects the social, paving the way for international workshop and curatorial projects for exhibitions.
She has lectured about non-toxic printmaking in numerous international conferences (IMPACT10, Santandèr, 2018; Segno e Insegno; Florence’s Academy, 2015; Venice’s International School for graphics arts, 2009 e 2015, Istituto Nazionale per la Grafica, Roma, 2013).
Her visual work has been exhibited widely: solo exhibitions have been organized in Barcelona, Lubijana, Roma, Firenze. She is represented in permanent public collections including: Museo Civico di Brunico (BZ); Centro de las Artes, Monterrey Nuevo Leòn , Mexico; Maramures, Romania ; Fondazione Federica Galli, Milano; Fondazione Il Bisonte, Firenze; Università Politecnica, Valencia ; Museo Nacional Centro Arte Reina Sofia, Madrid; Pinacoteca Comunale, Leros ; Pinacoteca de l’Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Sul.
She awards the European Award for Lifelong Passions in 2013 (Bolzano, Italy) and was invited artist in residence in Morocco: The Assilah Forum Foundation, 39° Moussem Culturel International 2017.
To learn more about:
https://francescagennaprint.wixsite.com/website
http://incisionesostenibile.blogspot.com/
https://www.facebook.com/QuelliDelNonToxic/
https://www.facebook.com/Incisione-sostenibile-1457701284521540/
