Frank Ragano

Work: "Turned Loose"
When:
Where:

Frank Ragano began his artistic career as a dancer in Gainesville Florida in the early 1970s.

Moving to New York City in 1980 he joined Lee Nagrinos SkyFish Company, an experimental dance theater troupe, and worked with her until 1988. In 1986 the company won the Village Voice Obie for Best New American Play.

Simultaneously working as a sculptor, Frank exhibited his first installation, Trinity at the Waterpool, as part of a group show held in Red Hook, Brooklyn in 1986, which included such artists as Jean-Michel Basquiat. From 1990-94 he studied at The New School for Social Research in the Psychoanalytic Studies Program.

Frank moved to Santa Fe, New Mexico in 1996. Since then he has focused on integrating video into his sculpture and installations. Louis Grachos, former director of Site Santa Fe, has selected his work twice for shows at the Fuller Lodge in Los Alamos, New Mexico.

In the last six years his exhibitions have included sculptural installations and digital video stills. His video installation, The Door, at the Box Gallery in Santa Fe was followed by an extensive two month show of his installation work in the tower and outbuildings on his property. Sponsored by Box Gallery, it drew critical and public acclaim. Since 2001 he has focused on video and the development of video installations.

In the summer of 2002 Mariannah Amster and Frank as Parallel Studios produced and were curators for "currents 2002", an exhibit of eight video artist in the 5000 square foot warehouse at the Center for Contemporary Arts in Santa Fe.

Frank presented the installation "Thinking With Water" and also designed the environment for this show. In July of 2003 they again produced and were curators for a similar exhibition, currents 2003, which was showcased at Art Santa Fe, a biennial international art fair, at the Sweeny Convention Center. The video installation Turned Loose, which was premiered at the art fair, was remounted at shack obscura at the Klaudia Marr Gallery in Santa Fe in september of that same year.

In march of 2003 he premiered the video installation Looking Back From Here at the HCC Ybor City Festival of the Moving Image in Tampa, Florida, and in march of 2004 will present "Turned Loose". That same march Frank created his first set for the play Three Poets presented at the Playhouse Theater in Santa Fe.

In 2002 Frank and his partner, Mariannah Amster, founded the video arts production company Parallel Studios in order to further the work of international media artists.