FRANKLIN, Tenn— Haynes Galleries artist and internationally acclaimed sculptor Alicia N. Ponzio will publicly unveil her commissioned portrait bust of Giancarlo Guerrero, maestro of the Nashville Symphony on September 8. The bust was commissioned to celebrate the beginning of Guerrero’s tenth season at the symphony. The bronze bust will be revealed during a ceremony to symphony patrons and guests at the Schermerhorn Symphony Center in Nashville, Tennessee before the first performance of the symphony’s 2018/2019 season.
Ponzio began work on the bust last August during a visit to Haynes Galleries where she met with Guerrero and the commission patrons Dr. Zeljko & Tanya Radic, Nashville sculpture collectors and also patrons of the Nashville Symphony. During her time in Nashville, Ponzio had a thorough session with Guerrero. She spent the time studying his individual features and took relevant measurements that she would need to capture his likeness.
The time spent together also let Ponzio get to know Guerrero, both the artist and the man. Recalling the time, Ponzio said “Meeting Giancarlo Guerrero was an important part of my process in creating this bust. I try to get a sense of the individual I’m portraying aside from their public persona. He has a dramatic and powerful presence that I observed and heard during his performances; but at the same time he’s warm and engaging in conversation. I wanted the bust to give the viewers a sense of his intensity, his passion for music and incredible talents, while also describing him as an individual of great humanity.”
Of the commission, friend of Ponzio and Haynes Galleries’ founder Gary R. Haynes says “I knew when Dr. Zeljko & Tanya Radic decided to offer a sculpture bust to honor Giancarlo that Alicia would do an impressive piece. What makes Alicia unique is her ability to capture a subject’s essential character and their emotion with a sense of rhythm in the design. You always feel something when looking at one of her sculptures. I’ve seen the bust in progress and I’m certain Giancarlo, the Symphony, and everyone else will be blown away. Thanks to the Dr. Zeljko & Tanya Radic donation, the Symphony will have a very special way to honor Giancarlo for what will soon be a decade of masterful music making.”
The portrait bust of Guerrero is only the latest achievement for Ponzio, American figurative sculptor working primarily in bronze and plaster. She completed her sculpture training at the Florence Academy of Art where she later taught for 3 years before returning to the U.S. to establish her own studio in San Francisco.
Ponzio puts lots of passion in her bronzes which brings them to life with rhythm, and movement using the language of the figure to project her emotional experiences. Her work has received national recognition and honors from the Art Renewal Center, the Catharine Lorillard Wolfe Art Club, The Portrait Society of America, The California Art Club and The National Sculpture Society, the last of which awarded Ponzio the Alex J. Ettl Grant in 2016. She was also the 2017 Artist in Residence at Brookgreen Gardens in South Carolina and was chosen to design the 2018-19 Brookgreen Gardens medal for the longest running medal series in the United States. Her work is represented by Haynes Galleries in Franklin, Tennessee, and can be found in private collections throughout North America and Europe. She teaches workshops for clients including Pixar Studios and The University of Calgary as well as weekly classes at JHess Studios in San Francisco.
