Boni Penna

Artist's Statement

“I like travelling and, when I am back home, I give life to my memories and emotions in my artworks”.

Artist's Profile

Boni Penna, an Italian-born professional engineer, has always been interested in visual art and modern architecture. In his early years he expressed himself in pencil and ink drawings as well as black and white photography.

In the late 1980’s he started woodcarving on his own, until he met the Montreal sculptor Guy Pierre, who introduced him to the study of the human anatomy. This was a turning point in his artistic development. After two years with Guy, he joined the Ottawa School of Arts, where he studied sculpture with John Saddler.

Boni is best known for his representational sculptures of human figures with delicate details and well proportioned features. While the common denominator of his works is classical approach and flowing lines, his most recent sculptures have simpler forms leaning towards the abstract. His favorite media are alabaster and marble.

More recently he started studying drawing and painting with well known Ottawa area artists such as Mark Masters, Sue Adams, Dana Brezina, Margaret Ferraro and Andrea Ross.
From still life drawing he went to portraits and life drawings; then he felt the need of adding color to his works. He is now painting with dry pastel taking advantage of the vibrant colours offered by this medium.

Since 1995 he had several solo exhibitions in Ottawa, such as the one at the Trinity Memorial Art Gallery, the Alliance Française Art Gallery, the Gloucester Gallery, and also participated to Visual Art Festivals and group exhibition in Montreal, Ottawa and Hamilton, ON.

Boni is member of the National Capital Network of Sculptors (NCNS) and the Pastel Artists of Canada (PAC). He is one of the founding artists of the “Orleans Studio Tour”.