iPOP is the term used by artist Serena Bocchino to describe her latest body of mixed media work which includes paintings, “photo-paintings,” painted figures and drawings. Using bright enamel and her unique “pouring technique,” Bocchino creates a true wonderland in this installation. Surrounding her vivid and lyrical paintings is a garden with ordinary lawn ornaments such as bunnies, squirrels and flamingos which she transforms into iconographic pop elements. The result is vital and dynamic; a colorful and surprising environment which combines high art with popular culture.

Bocchino has developed her own poetic and unique visual vocabulary of rhythmic marks, lines and imagery. The result is an exciting frisson of color, mood and atmosphere. She continues to push the parameters of her paintings using a vibrant palette and textured imagery. For the first time she will exhibit her “photo-paintings,” which combine digitally manipulated photographs with acrylic plexiglass sheets on which she paints to create a “pop synergy” between the different media. She continues to fully investigate her subject matter utilizing these and other industrial materials in bold new renderings of her visual language.

In iPOP Bocchino revisits, reinvents and reconstructs her world based on influences of the past three decades. The philosophical contrast of combining the high art of abstraction with ordinary lawn ornaments creates a contradiction that is both provocative and humorous. The ornaments are hand painted to match the paintings, and the integration of these figures creates an unexpected reality that spins ideas of fantasy and hope and creates a unique and personal perspective on life. Bocchino’s mastery of cosmic color and rhythmic abstraction gives the term “pop” – an oft-used expression – an explosive new meaning for our contemporary culture.

Since 1985 galleries and museums worldwide have featured Bocchino’s work. These include The Morris Museum of Art in Morristown, The New Jersey State Museum in Trenton, Tria Gallery in New York City, ArtHaus in San Francisco, Campo & Campo in Antwerp, Studio Bocchi in Rome, the Galerie du Tableau in Marseilles, and the Millennio Gallerie D’Arte in Venice, among others.

Bocchino and her work have been the subject of four films, the most recent of which, A Dream of Blue, directed by Greg Smith of Down the Line Productions, received the 2009 Best Inspirational Documentary Award by the New York International Independent Film & Video Festival. Another documentary featuring Bocchino working in her studio was screened at The Museum of Modern Art.

Bocchino has been recognized by many art institutions for her work and is the recipient of numerous awards including the Pollock-Krasner Foundation Grant, the PS 1 International Studio Residency, the Artists Space/Artists Grant, The New Jersey State Council on the Arts, the Art Matters Grant, the Brodsky Center Printmaking Residency and the Basil Alkazzi Award. Her work is included in prestigious private, public and corporate collections throughout the world, including those of McKinsey & Co. Inc., Pricewaterhouse Coopers, Pfizer and Johnson & Johnson. Her work has also been selected for inclusion in the Brodsky Print Center’s 25th Anniversary Exhibition at The Museum of Modern Art in New York in 2011.

Bocchino has a Masters Degree in Painting from New York University. This is her second solo exhibition at Tria.