Artist Statement
Ariana Franco is a sculptor, mixed media installation artist, and professional genealogical researcher living in Miami, Florida. Her work incorporates repetition, shapes, textures, and traditional craft as a nod to her ancestor’s occupations. The work activates space with hard and soft materials such as wood, hand dyed fabrics, paper, and kitsch.
Objects suspended impose the viewers space, inviting them in and around, unable to touch the work creating a tense focus to observe. Delicate poetic colors wash surfaces enhancing singular silhouettes within the confines of shape. Interior architecture is activated by shadow and light. These elements add dramatic shifts of perspective while small detail invite intimacy.
Ariana’s sculptures and installations are both visceral and cerebral—pleasurable to the viewer while deeper meaning challenge the experience to themes of identity and relationships.
“Count Your Lucky Stars”
December 2017
Watercolor paper, dye, screening, metal foil, spray paint, cotton twine, wood, chain.
Size: 24” circumference by 48” height
Education & Residency
Vermont Studio Center; Johnson, VT – Artist Residency and Retreat, 2010
Ringling College of Art and Design; Sarasota, FL – Bachelor of Fine Art, Sculpture, 2008
Rhode Island School of Design; Providence, RI – Industrial & Furniture Design, Summer Studies, 2006
Manatee Community College (now SCF); Bradenton, FL – Psychology & Film, Summer Studies, 2005
Group Exhibitions
2008, 31 Flavors, Senior Thesis: Fine Arts Department, Ringling College of Art and Design, Sarasota, FL
2010, Bread and Puppet, theatrical performance with Peter Schumann, Johnson, VT
2010, Invitation, S/ART/Q, Sarasota, FL
2011, Thirteen, S/ART/Q, GWiz Museum, Sarasota, FL
2012, Avant Garden, Selby’s Museum of Botany & the Arts, Sarasota, FL
2012, Select Art Fair, Miami, FL
2012, Print Party, S/ART/Q, Sarasota, FL
2017, Bombay Sapphire Artisan Series, N’Namdi Contemporary, Miami, FL
2018, Bombay Sapphire Artisan Series, Chromatic Art Gallery, Miami, FL
2018, Repetition, Chromatic Art Gallery, Miami, FL
Solo Exhibitions
2017, Meta Apparition, Shulmann and Associates, Miami, FL
2018, Identifying Characters, Englewood Art Center (Ringling College of Art and Design), Englewood, FL
Retail Displays
2012-2014, window displays for Juno and Jove, Sarasota, FL
2014-2017, display coordinator, Anthropologie, Naples,FL
2018, new store opening, Walt Grace Vintage, Miami, FL
2018, store design and installation, Kalma at Upper Buena Vista, Miami, FL
2020, store design and installation, Kalma at Aventura Mall, Miami, FL
2019-2023, displays, Harmont and Blaine, Brickell City Center, Miami, FL
2022-2023, displays and event activations, Alice and Olivia, Miami, FL
2022-2023, displays and event activations, Alice and Olivia, West Palm Beach, FL
Permanent Installation
2017, site specific installation, Bold CoWork, Sarasota, FL
Publications
2012, SarasotaVisualArt, “Thirteen at G.WIZ”, Kevin Costello
2013, Sarasota Today Blog, “Ariana Franco is Leaving a Paper Trail”, Robin Punsalan