On November 1, the Museum for Art in Wood (141 N. 3rd Street, Philadelphia, PA 19106) unveils Mark Sfirri: La Famiglia. These new, never-before-seen sculptures by Sfirri center around the theme of family, exploring its many definitions while also reflecting on the immigrant experience, belonging, and the eventual passing of one generation to the next.
Based in Bucks County, PA, Sfirri is an esteemed figure in the world of woodturning and woodworking. Born with an innate passion for craftsmanship, creativity, and artistic collaboration, he is renowned for his innovations in art in wood. Sfirri earned a BFA and MFA in Furniture Design at Rhode Island School of Design, where he began to explore ways to incorporate lathe-turned parts into furniture and turned double-rimmed platters.
In addition to his career as an artist, Sfirri is a professor emeritus at Bucks County Community College, where he taught full-time for nearly 40 years. He has received three national awards, including the “Distinguished Educator Award” in 2010 from the Renwick Alliance and, in 2012, the “Lifetime Achievement Award” from the Collectors of Wood Art, and this year received the prestigious “2024 AAW POP Merit Award” from the American Association of Woodturners.
In La Famiglia, Sfirri invites the viewer to consider the many interpretations of family and their meanings, including the families we’re born into versus the ones we choose, inherited traits and species (trees and wood types), and formations of communities biological and chosen, with their own histories and backgrounds. The artist embraced a spontaneous, free-flowing process, crafting a series of objects that followed a general concept while allowing room to experiment with different creative directions and techniques. Using this approach, each object Sfirri created informed the next, leading to many series – or “families” – of sculptures. The respective families come in various shapes, designs, and colors, ranging in size from two to 67 inches tall, each developed through a particular combination of woodturning, carving, and surfacing processes.
Mark Sfirri: La Famiglia is on display in the Museum’s gallery from November 1, 2024, to February 16, 2025. Visit museumforartinwood.org to learn more.