MISSION STATEMENT
Rome Art Residencies is a Fine Art Workshop and Residency Program located in the heart of Rome, Italy. We offer high quality instruction by world renowned representational artists. Our small class sizes create an intimate learning experience for the contemporary artist. Rome is our campus and we take full advantage of our privileged location, incorporating excursions through the city and to museums and sacred sites to learn from the Old Masters. These supplemental tours by our instructors through the world’s largest open air museum, makes for an incomparable learning experience.
Workshop studios are located in the center of Rome, Italy.
TEAM
Brian Booth craig
Founder / Instructor
Born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. He is a contemporary sculptor who specializes in bronze. Sculpting from life, his work translates the human form into contemporary icons. His figures are imbued with a sense of agency. Mixing 21st century gestures with surprising talismans, his statues are very much of our time, despite the medium’s antecedents. Verist in nature, Craig’s figures capture moments of individual self-assertion. Brian holds a B.A. from Pennsylvania State University (1993) as well as an M.F.A. from the New York Academy of Art (2013) and is an Honorary Member of the International Sculpture Center (2013). A former apprentice and assistant to the painter and sculptor Audrey Flack, Brian also has extensive teaching experience, first as a professor of sculpture at the Lyme Academy College of Fine Arts (2004-2015) and at art studios throughout the world. He has been running and teaching art workshops in Italy for eight years. His work has been exhibited extensively in the United States and Internationally. Brian is represented by Louis K Meisel Gallery in New York City.
jim dessicino
Program Director
Born in Atlantic City, New Jersey. He is an artist and educator with a profound love of Rome, having lived there from 2005-2010. A former Vatican Museums guide (2007-2009), Dessicino is well acquainted with the museums, restaurants, and hidden treasures of Rome. As a sculptor, he is best known for his 2014 monumental "Edward Snowden Statue." Dessicino is a recipient of the Faith in Form Award from the AIA Interfaith Forum on Religion, Art and Architecture (2016) with Eòin Burke. He was studio assistant to 2018 MacArthur Fellow, Titus Kaphar (2010 – 2012.) Dessicino holds an M.F.A. from University of Delaware (2015) as well as a B.F.A. from The University of the Arts (2007) Dessicino teaches at Stockton University in New Jersey.
THOMAS ROBINSON
Tour Guide
Thomas Robinson is a Licensed Tour Guide in Rome. A native of Florida, he has lived much of his adult life Italy. He studied History in the United States and in France, Art History in France and Italy, and Archeology in Italy.
Licensed by the Province of Rome, Thomas successfully completed the Italian-language examination and qualification process, evidencing his proficiency in the five fields of Archaeology, History and Art History, Physical and Political Geography, Tourism Law, and Foreign Languages. He is one of very few native English-speaking Licensed Tour Guides in Rome, where he has worked with Through Eternity Tours since 2006. Thomas is fluent in English, French, and Italian.
GERMAN ACOSTA
Documentarian
Born in Lima, Perú in 1983. German is an experience designer with a background in the arts. Skilled at integrating the arts and media, he helps Rome Art Residencies reach the internet. He took his first Sculpture class at MALI in Lima, Perú. Then he immigrated to the United States in 2006 to pursue higher education in Sculpture and Business. He continued his training in Sculpture at Fleisher in Philadelphia. He became a sculptor’s apprentice for renowned sculptors Robert Taplin, Stephen Layne, Eóin Burke and Jim Dessicino. In 2014, he earned an AS in Business administration from ACCC and a BS in 2016 Marketing from Rutgers University. German worked with world renowned Curator Lance Fung on ARTlantic as a web administrator and assistant to the project manager.
2023 FACULTY
shana levenson
Shana Levenson is a representational painter from Albuquerque, NM. Her passion for the arts led her to pursue a BA in Fashion Design from The University of Texas, in Austin, and after the birth of her children in 2009 and 2010, an MFA in Fine Art Painting from the Academy of Art University, in San Francisco.
Shana’s work focuses on portraiture and the figure. Her inspiration comes from painting people that are important in her life, and her goal is to capture each person’s story in an honest and meaningful way. Shana draws inspiration from her own experiences and uses specific series as a way to illustrate chapters in her life. Her background in fashion has inspired her newest series of paintings of lace.
Along with a busy painting and exhibition schedule, Shana runs a private art school out of her studio and teaches workshops all over the world. She currently lives in Albuquerque, New Mexico with her kids. Shana’s works can be seen in regular exhibitions across the United States and abroad. Her work can be seen at McLarry Fine Art Gallery in Santa Fe, NM, at Stone Sparrow Gallery in NYC, and at Abend Gallery in Denver
Instagram: @Slevenson
david kassan
David Kassan studied painting and art history at Syracuse University, the Art Students League of New York, and the National Academy School of Fine Art. He has lectured at many schools around the country including Savannah College of Art and Design, PAFA, Rochester Institute of Technology, Arizona State University, Western Illinois University, Syracuse University, the National Academy School of Fine Art, and the University of Alabama. He has taught at the National Academy School of Fine Art, the Cathedral of Saint John the Divine, the Salmagundi Club and at the 72nd Street Studio. Mr. Kassan has conducted many international painting seminars, including workshops in Iceland, Australia, South Africa, Italy, Portugal, Belgium and Spain. He has been a contributor to many different art publications, including a two-year column in Drawing Magazine on the topic of understanding anatomy. David Kassan is currently represented by Gallery Henoch.
Instagram: @davidkassan
agnes grochulska
Agnes was born in Poland and studied design at the Academy of Fine Arts in Warsaw, Poland.
Agnes is interested in a broad spectrum of themes and subjects in her art. She is drawn to the human subject with all the emotion, meaning, and importance that only the human form can carry. Another idea she likes to explore is the landscape around her, trying to capture the essence of the place.
Instagram: @agnesgrochulska
ADAM MILLER
Adam was Born in 1979 in Oregon, He began an apprenticeship to artist Allen Jones at thirteen years old and at Sixteen, was accepted to the Florence Academy Of Art in Florence and continued his studies under Michael John Angel in Florence. For the next four years, Miller traveled throughout Europe studying the work of the Baroque and Mannerist painters.
His work has been commissioned by Robert Pamplin Jr., the Chairman of the Board of the Portland Art Museum, Mike Tyson, and Eric Rhodes, publisher of Fine Art Connoisseur.
Miller has exhibited in both the U.S and Europe.
Adam Miller has been described in reviews as a “rising star of realism” and it was said that he “would be considered a master in any era”.
Instagram: @adammillerart
Alex Oliver
Alex Oliver is a figurative sculptor, with vast knowledge of human anatomy and traditional draftsmanship. Alex has worked for companies like Blizzard Entertainment in Los Angeles, California, working on projects like Diablo 3 and World of Warcraft Cinematics, Discovery Channel, National Geographic and has taught sculpting in São Paulo for 4 years.
Alex’s works are also known through workshops in Brazil and abroad. He has taught workshops at a number of well known Entertainment and Fine Art Institutions both in California and in Brazil. Currently, Alex directs his efforts and attention towards the creation of Alex Oliver Studio, which is located in the city of Fortaleza in the state of Ceará, Brazil, working as a Sculptor/3D Artist at Alex Oliver Studio.
Instagram: @alexoliverart
thomas w. schaller
Thomas W. Schaller is an award-winning artist, architect, and author based in New York City. As a renowned architectural artist, he received a Graham Foundation Grant and is a two-time recipient of the Hugh Ferriss Memorial Prize. He has authored three books; the best-selling, and AIA award winner, Architecture in Watercolor (VNR – McGraw Hill) The Art of Architectural Drawing (J.Wiley and Sons), and Thomas W. Schaller, Architect of Light : Watercolor Paintings by a Master - a retrospective of his recent artwork released by North Light Books / F+W Media and now Penguin / Random House, NYC in 2018. He is in demand worldwide as a speaker, exhibitor, author, instructor, and juror. Artist Network Television has produced two best-selling series of instructional Videos and DVDs of his technique. Creative Catalyst / Streamline Video published a full length video of his process in 2020. In October 2021, he has released a first of its kind interactive online curriculum Design and the Power of Imagination with Terracotta LLC
Instagram: @thomaswschaller
CRAWW
Living on the edge of the Peak District in the UK and surrounded by hills, woods and open moorland, Craww’s work reflects an ongoing fascination with the natural world, and the relationships we have with it.
His work creates narratives that are drawn from the beauty to be found in contradictions and ambiguity - life and death, beauty and decay, strength, fragility, the interplay between conflicting and complementing forces of nature and the constructs that mark our passing.
Each piece is a story, or an aspect of an unfolding story that writes itself as he works on it. As his muses pass through time and place they are accompanied in their journey by birds and animals. Often framed by classical and historical reference points and surrounded by flowing lines and natural forms, Craww works to uncover their ambiguous connections and hidden narratives and explore how the passage of time shapes the relationship between ourselves and nature..
With successful shows in the UK and US, he has found collectors and fans around the world.
Instagram: @craww
Daniel Sprick
Contemporary realist painter Daniel Sprick produces meticulously executed portraits and figurative compositions whose muted palettes and sense of stillness encourage slow contemplation. His paintings feature a range of subjects, from still lifes of flowers and unlikely assortments of objects to interiors and urban and pastoral scenes. A diverse range of men, women, and youth populate his portraits and figurative works; taken together, they reflect a rich and encompassing view of humanity. “I’m interested in all walks of life, everyone,” the artist once explained about his choice of subjects. “Some that may be considered conventionally beautiful and others that may not, and everyone in between.” In his still lifes, which recall those of the Dutch and Flemish traditions, Sprick brings together the sumptuous—including silver tableware and starched white tablecloths—and the mundane, such as tin cans and old bottles, in elegant, harmoniously balanced arrangements.
Instagram: @sprickdaniel
PREVIOUS FACULTY and Resident artists
denis sarazhin
Instructor
Born in Nikopol, Ukraine in 1982. He attended the Kharkov Art and Design Academy, graduating in 2008. He specialized in painting and was a pupil of Ganozkiy V. L., Chaus V. N., and Vintayev V. N.. Sarazhin was awarded with the 1st Degree Diploma Award for Excellence in Painting from the Ukrainian Art Academy. Since 2007 he has been a member of Kharkov’s section of the association of Ukraine’s Artists’ Alliance. Since 2006 Denis has exhibited his work throughout the world. He is represented by Arcadia Contemporary Gallery in Pasadena, California.
Kris Kuksi
Visiting Artist
Rome Art Residencies is excited to announce that sculptor Kris Kuksi will be a Visiting Artist with us in Rome this May, 2019.
Kris will give an Artist Talk about his career and influences (Baroque, Rococo, and the Macabre) all things that Rome has in droves.
He will also accompany us on our visit to the Galleria Borghese, where we are sure to hear some fantastic insights into the art of the Roman Baroque.
Alexandra Slava
Artist in Residency
Born in Ukraine.Alexandra Slava is a figurative sculptor currently living and working in Berlin. She graduated from the Florence Academy of Art, where she was awarded the prize of Sculpture of the Year. Alexandra`s work has been recognized by several international organizations including The Alpine Fellowship, The Art Renewal Center, The International Arts and Culture Group, European Museum of Modern Art, The Society of Portrait Sculptors and Aesthetica Magazine. In addition to receiving awards from these institutions, she was selected to create the model for a large marble statue of St Joseph for the interior design of St. John Baptist Church in Williamsburg, Virginia. Her works may be found in private collections all over Europe, the United States and South America.
Alexandra`s work focuses on an expressive potential of the human figure. Her interests lie in using the body as a vehicle for exploring, discovering and ultimately conveying the endless variety presented by nature. By often working with self-portraiture, she first engages with her own experiences in an attempt to represent a more universal portrayal of the complex human existence.
Alexandra was the inaugural Artist in Residence in 2019.