Siena Gillann Porta
Website: www.sienaporta.com or www.sienaporta.art
Social Media: FB, Instagram, LinkedIn. Email: sienaporta@gmail.com
STATEMENT
The intensely personal in artwork bridges our universal experiences of vulnerability, struggle, joy, resistance, resilience and love. As a two-time breast cancer survivor (so far) my aim is to heal, express and connect through my artwork because with or without cancer, this is everyone’s story.
The imagery in my artwork, painting, sculpture or installation is predominately theme-driven. Zen Buddhist practice has shaped and informed my work for most of my adult life. More recently the art of Kimura Shukokai Karate has become a part of this narrative bringing karate images more prominently into my body of work because I became a practitioner myself in 2016; earning my third degree (San Dan) black belt in 2025.
The mechanics of anatomy and bodies in motion has always been a passionate interest of mine. Dancing and performing in a mime and ballet troupe and studying at The Martha Graham School in New York as a teenager developed my appreciation for the human body as an instrument of expression. In graduate school I was fortunate to be able to draw from cadavers at Hershey Medical College which advanced my academic understanding of body mechanics as an artist.
For me it’s all about energy, rhythm, color, emotion, movement, rawness, fluidity spontaneity and pure fun. The Kimura Shukokai Karate paintings are about the martial art of combat and and the artistic discipline required to keep learning a complex skillset. They are also personal images of people with whom I’ve trained and who I admire for their devotion to this artform. Portraits: My portraits of people, myself included, are meant to capture their personality and inner world past the obvious likeness of the person. They are interpretations of each person’s uniqueness and character, and also a moment in time.
Utilizing contemporary media is an essential part of my vision. Access to new materials and technology while working in production as a Scenic Artist (USA 829) for The Metropolitan Opera, Broadway shows and Feature films significantly enlarged my media repertoire. I always fall in love with my newest work and hope that it communicates powerfully to others. At its best I find creating artwork is discovery, sometimes frustration and always a place where linear time stops.
SGP 2026
BIOGRAPHY
Siena Gillann Porta, a native New Yorker, attended the Art Students League, the School of Visual Arts and the New School, earning a BS in Studio Arts, CUNY, Brooklyn College studying with Lee Bonticou, Philip Pearlstein, Lois Dodd and Sylvia Stone. Her MFA is from The Pennsylvania State University (Full Fellowship,TA)
With solo and group exhibitions throughout the U.S. and abroad at galleries and museums, her university exhibitions include Notre Dame, Lehigh, Adelphi, Amherst, NJCU, Manhattanville, Fairleigh Dickinson and NYU. Public collections include The City of Hveragerdi, Iceland, St. Philip R.C. Church, Norwalk CT, The Hafnarborg Cultural Museum, Iceland and Fulbright Commission in Iceland. Group exhibitions include; Ceres Gallery, The Interchurch Center-Treasure Room Gallery, The Hammond Museum, The Taller Boricua Gallery, Carter Burden Gallery, The Brother Chapman Gallery - Iona College, Highbridge Park - Manhattan, Rockaway National Seashore, Prince Street Gallery, Blue Mountain Gallery, Leonia Sculpture Park, The Hudson Valley Museum, Salem Art Works, Jacob Riis National Park, the Lockwood-Matthews Mansion CT and Governors Island.
As a Scenic Artist with USA Local 829 Porta painted and sculpted work for The Metropolitan Opera, Broadway and feature films She was an Adjunct Professor of Art at Ramapo College NJ, St. Thomas Aquinas and Bergen Community. Grants and residencies include: NYFA, USIA, NYSCA, Brisons Veor, Cornwall, England and Varmahlid Haus, Iceland.
Reviews and essays include; Porta’s work and artistic voice have been recently recognized in multiple platforms: she was interviewed on Art in Conversation with Farrin, a YouTube series produced by the National Association of Women Artists (also available on Spotify), and reviewed by Liam Otero in White Hot Magazine (August 2025, Chelsea Exhibition Reviews, New York Society of Women Artists). Gallery & Studio reviewed her solo exhibition in their Fall 2025 issue. Her practice is also discussed in Eleanor Heartney’s essay, The Time of Our Lives, published in the NYSWA Centennial Catalog.
Beyond her studio work, Siena Gillann Porta serves as President of 14 Sculptors Inc., an art collective founded in 1973 as a gallery in Soho, and is both a Board Member and exhibiting artist with the New York Society of Women Artists (NYSWA).
Represented in NYC by NOHO M55 Gallery,14 Sculptors Inc, The New York Society of Women Artists and The New York Artists Circle. Porta is a cancer survivor, 3nd degree Kimura Shukokai Karate blackbelt and married with three children. Most recently Porta had a solo exhibition at NOHO M55 Gallery in Chelsea in the Fall of 2025, titled, “Showing Up – Acts of Witness”.
SGP 2026