Gina Rafaella Furnari is a painter, and process artist focused on investigations of place, community, and belonging. Gina is currently an Adjunct Professor of Art at Rowan University and Rowan College of South Jersey. Gina holds a BFA in Painting and Art history and an MFA from the Nomad MFA program (University of Hartford). Her work consists of independent and collaborative projects including “A Place for Us” (2020)—which collects visual and audio references from areas where land and water meet along New Jersey’s waterways and explores the idea of habit as habitat. She has exhibited in the United States, Iceland, and Ireland.
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Artist Statement
My work is centered around water and ideas of edge, habitat, and home. I spend my time in places where bodies, water, land, sea, sky, and light all come together. I am most interested in the ways our senses impact our experience of these overlapping edge spaces.
I trained as a painter and my work follows the processes of observation, research, and gradual understanding through making which that discipline has taught me. I work in a wide variety of media depending on what best suits the project. This includes large scale sculptural installations, public programing, and publications, as well as paintings and drawings. New Jersey is a complex mixture of habitats: coasts, estuaries, river basins, geological striations, industry, and agriculture. Undoubtedly, my experience of our regions habitats has impacted my belief that contradictions, contrasts, and the sharing of stories lead to a better, more interesting existence.
Visit Instagram.com/gina_rafaella to connect and see more of my work.
CV
ARTIST RESIDENCIES
BEATS Artist-in-Residence / Teaching Artist, Clay College, RCSJ, Millville, NJ
2022
Cape May Whale Watch and Research
2020
Makeshifter in Residence, Makeshift Society Brooklyn, New York, NY
Summer 2014
Listhús Artist Residency, Ólafsfjördur, Iceland
2013
EDUCATION
University of Hartford: The Hartford Art School, Hartford, CT
2018-2020
Nomad9 Interdisciplinary MFA
University of Hartford: The Hartford Art School, Hartford, CT
2005-2009
BFA in Painting and Art History
The Burren College of Art, Ballyvaughan, Ireland
2008
HONORS
Audience Pick for Night 3, Hammonton Arts and Film Festival
2025
Excellence Award - CADC
2012
EXHIBITION HISTORY
Hammonton Arts and Film Festival, Hammonton, NJ
2025
Women in the Arts Group Show, Hammonton, NJ
2022
Climate Conversations, Nurture Nature Center, Easton, PA
2022
Hatak, Virtual Exhibition, North Willow Gallery, Montclair, NJ
2021
Environmentally Speaking, 22 North Gallery, Ypsilanti, MI
2020
Confluence, MFA Thesis Exhibition, Joseloff Gallery, Hartford, CT
2020
The Oyster Plate Exhibition, Clay College, Millville, NJ
2018
Plein Air Exhibition, The Art Gallery at Atlantic Cape, Mays Landing, NJ
2018
PINK, Silpe Gallery, Hartford, CT
2015
Open House, Listhús, Ólafsfjördur, Iceland
2013
HAS Alumni Exhibition, Hartford, CT
2011
SOFA, Enchanted Garden, Solo Exhibition, Ridgefield, CT
2010
Room to Room, 20 West Gallery, Group Exhibition, Danbury, CT
2009
Of Two Minds, HAS Senior show, Hartford, CT
2009
Imported, Burren College of Art, Ballyvaughan, Ireland
2008
PROFESSIONAL OFFICES
Director, Cultural Alliances, AIGA Connecticut
2013 to 2014