“Sam Punzina’s work is, from a technical point of view, as dense as the glazes used and therefore has a tactile quality that makes it live on the border between painting and sculpture. The artist’s characteristic dripping emerges from the surface and reveals itself as thick matter, which however maintains an ethereal and poetic lightness. The tones, although intense, acidic and almost psychedelic, precipitate the viewer into a fairy-tale dimension; here Punzina’s automatic and instinctive writing creates biomorphic signs, which develop and compose according to architectures on the border between chaos and awareness. It evokes a bizarre nature which at the same time fascinates, reassures and restless, because it blooms in the form of the synthetic and the artificial”
Davide W. Pairone

“Bio-morphism is a prerogative of the work of Sam Punzina, an artist capable of evoking the magic of fairytales through landscapes of mellifluous colors, in which the images of animals, plants, insects and mushrooms are obtained through a sort of dense dripping of glazes.

The result are canvases sprinkled with sinuous and rounded shapes, soft like smash mellows and shiny like jellies, where the figure exfoliates, until it almost gets lost in a polymorphism very close to abstraction, but animated by a passionate and vital spirit.
Punzina not only reintegrates the value of the automatic gesture into the pictorial practice, re-reading the informal under the sign of a renewed spontaneity, but also creates an original space of action in that pop dimension that is on the border between figuration and de figuration, which promises to be the crossroads of the next artistic experiments.”
Ivan Quaroni, Ambiguous Painting, galleria Federica Ghizzoni, 2010

Sam Punzina inaugurates an innovative language in art, by reinventing themes and motifs with a unified style, with the aim to express and revitalize different aspects of reality.
Sam, an artist who reinterprets reality and with very high skills, weaves canvases on the human, through floating figures that take shape from countless bubbles.
Each of her works live a life of its own and is then completed in the others, lending itself to innumerable interpretations that go beyond the intentions of the author herself, by accentuating the pathos, the suspense, the involvement of the viewer who inevitably tends to grasp that unique present expressed in a particular story that speaks universally.
Faced with the not always decipherable intrigue of existence, Sam defeats that silence that often leaves room for nothing, with the strength of her polyform bubbles that emerge like sculptures from canvases to capture the soul of the beholder.

Through her metaphorical characters, she guides us in a fantastic world, leading us by hand into the fairy tale, in the dream and tries to shake the traditional ways of our thought in order to open it to new truths capable of restoring multiplicity to reality.
The almost diaristic note of the whole collection, in the duality between reality and imagination, in a challenge between virtual and real deviations, makes each work, the emerging peak of a reflection that invests the being in the world and the awareness of being there.
The whole work, articulating the understood and the misunderstood, becomes an authentic reproduction of our inner labyrinth to get lost in its meanders, in search of balance and reconciliation.

Thus, intense, acid and pure colors create the background with figures, flowers, polyform bubbles, nymphs, in a fairy-tale dimension, in which the chaos reigns fascinating and disturbing the viewer, which often finds himself immersed in a timeless time, in a present conjugated to the future or perhaps ……. in a future that wants to narrate millennia of past history, accentuating the becoming through the formula of changing bubbles.

Through the works of Sam Punzina, the viewer is immediately catapulted into a dreamlike, extravagant, but at the same time familiar and reassuring dimension. Totally absorbed by lavender, emerald green or cornflower blue skies, the observer’s curiosity is tickled by the most varied sensory stimuli. Color and warmth melt in Sam’s glazes to give light to an energetic and vitalistic universe, in which houses, sweets and flowers can be seen. In these joyful and welcoming spaces, even the most dangerous elements, both animals (wolves, jellyfish, bees) and plants (such as the very poisonous mushrooms Amanita muscaria), and symbolic (skulls) fall within the poetics of the artist devoted to light-heartedness , to sweetness and joie de vivre.

Samantha Punzina was born in Enna in 1980. She lives between Milano and Enna.

PERSONAL SHOWS

2015
MOUNGA, Basilica di Sant’Ambrogio, Antico Oratorio della Passione, con galleria Federica Ghizzoni, Milano
STRATI D’ANIMO, Dell’Osso ArtGallery, Matera a cura di D.Dell’Osso, testo di S.Spinella

2014
UN PONTE SOSPESO SU MERAVIGLIE DI CARTONE #2, Piziarte Home Gallery, Tortoreto Lido (TE) a cura di M.e P.Cucinella, testo di F.Scotti

2013
UN PONTE SOSPESO SU MERAVIGLIE DI CARTONE, a cura di M. e P. Cucinella, Piziarte Home Gallery, Tortoreto Lido (TE)
SAM PUNZINA, Talent store Lovli, a cura di Ellis Palmi
PERDIFIATO, galleria Federica Ghizzoni, Milano
JUST LIKE HONEY, corto animato_Directors Lounge 9#_festival for contemporary media and film Berlino

2011
NOCTURNA FABULA, con Shanti Ranchetti, a cura di R.  Farinotti, galleria Federica Ghizzoni, Milano
A SUD DI NESSUN NORD, galleria Piziarte, Teramo

2010
SOGNI IN APNEA, galleria Piziarte, Teramo

2006
SAM PUNZINA, galleria Piziarte, Teramo

2005
ESPLOSIONE ABRASIVA, CCp Agricantus, Palermo

COLLECTIVES

2015
THE GIFT, Spazio Kappa, a cura di Katia Licari, testo di Tiziana Pantaleo Sciacca (AG)
THE NATURE OF THE ART, Opificio Zappa, Erba – MUVI Museo Vitaloni, Milano
LE FIL ROUGE, a cura di Viviana Cazzato, Specchia (LE)
CARTE D’ARTE, spazio MariArte, a cura della Galleria Piziarte, Bitonto (BA)

2014
POP GIFTS COLLECTION, a cura di Rebecca Wilson, Saatchi Art’s homepage
HeART 4 Kids, a cura di F.Barbi Marinetti, con Galleria Federica Ghizzoni, Margutta Art Gallery, Roma
A POP EXPLOSION, a cura di L.Grasso- Amstel Art gallery,  Londra
DOMINA 23, Palazzo Ziino, Palermo
NOW, LO SGUARDO POW SUL CONTEMPORANEO – Pow Gallery di A.Icardi, Torino
SOGNI PASSIONI E…, a cura di Piziarte, Azienda agricola Antonio e Elio Monti, (TE)
INSIDE CONTEMPORANEA, a cura di F. Creta, Arcos, Museo arte contemporanea del Sannio, Benevento

2013
UN ESTATE AL MARE, a cura di M. Cucinella e P. A. Cucinella, Piziarte, (TE)
ASTA IL VOLO, a cura di R. Farinotti, Palazzo Isimbardi, Milano
NU-SHU, a cura di V. Pardini, galleria Europa, Camaiore (LU)
DR.JEKPOP & MR.HIDE THE DARK SIDE OF THE POP ART, Amstel art gallery, Londra
IN UN FAZZOLETTO, Piscinacomunale, Milano
ARTE IN SARPI, progetto d’arte in via Paolo Sarpi Milano, a cura di R. Farinotti e SarpiDoc
IN UN FAZZOLETTO, Piscinacomunale Spaziodarteincopisteria, Milano

2012
007, NEW BOOND STREET, a cura di R. Farinotti, galleria Federica Ghizzoni, Milano
FEVER, progetto SUPERSTARS, a cura di Martina Di Trapani, Magnifica Preda “The vintage way”, Torino
OZ 4 ART “dalla favola all’arte”, a cura di B52Communications, Casa Oz, Torino
CHI CAVALCA LA TIGRE NON PUO’ PIU’ SCENDERE, Complesso Monumentale Tommaso Fazello, Sciacca (AG)
STAY FOLLISH!, a cura di A. Mazzanti e A. Icardi e  con Dorothy Circus Gallery di Roma, Museo Casa del Conte Verde, Rivoli
AEMILIA ARTquake, Spazio dei Chiostri di San Domenico, Reggio Emilia
ARTPUB CRAWL 2, a cura di Lilian Russo, Milano
EMOTIONART, Biennale internazionale artistico culturale a cura di A.  Icardi e G. Cassini, Castello di Montaldo. Torino
PULSIONI ROSA-Amazzoni dell’arte contemporanea, Tagart Shop Gallery, Reggio Calabria
NON ROMPETE LE SCATOLE, a cura di B-Art contemporary, Piscinacomunale e Fake Gallery, Villa Arconati, Castellazzo
KUNSTART, con Pow gallery di Torino, Bolzano
LET ME BE YOUR VALENTINE…WANT YOU BE MY VALENTINE?, a cura di A. Icardi, Pow gallery, Torino
A.A.F, con Pow gallery di Torino, Superstudiopiù, Milano

2011
ARTE A SUD, a cura di S. Ferrari e F. Londino, Unione dei Comuni del versante Ionico, Regione Calabria
BEFORE CHRISTMAS, Artcore Contemporarygallery, Bari
I LOW ART,  II edition, Artcore Contemporarygallery, Bari
DOVE SONO LE MONTAGNE?, a cura di M. Defrancesco, UFOFABRIK contemporary art gallery, Moena, (TN)
EQUIPE SHOW 2011 “LA SCATOLA DEI GIOCHI”, a cura di M. Defrancesco, UFOFABRIK contemporary art gallery, (TN)
SMALL_SOLDIERS_ PROJECT_ 2011, Teatro Espace, Torino
TRACCE, Spazio Bellezza Orsini, Bologna
ART FACTORY  con  UFOFABRIK contemporary art gallery, Le Ciminiere, Catania
NEOPOPULART, a cura di E. Di Mauro e A. Icardi, Spazio Sansovino, Torino
CONFINAMENTI STRALUNANTI, a cura di M. Defrancesco, UFOFABRIK contemporary art gallery, Moena (TN)
A.A.F., con galleria Federica Ghizzoni, SuperstudioPiù, Milano
ARCHIVIARTI 2011, a cura di F. Sette, Fabbrica Borroni, Milano

2010
MESSAGE OUT A BOTTLE 2, a cura di I. Quaroni e Amstel, galleria Spazioinmostra, Milano
AMBIGUOS PAINTING, a cura di I. Quaroni, galleria Spazioinmostra, Milano
TOYS & CANVANS, galleria Piziarte, Teramo
KINDERGARTEN, a cura di I. Quaroni, L’immagine Art Gallery, Milano

2009
STRAORDINARIA FOLLIA, galleria Piziarte, Teramo
SUMMERTIME, galleria Piziarte, Teramo
SGUARDO SUL MONDO, Laboratorio Renna, Enna
LIBRIDINE, a cura di C. Horat, Archivio Storico Comunale, Palermo

2008
IL BALLO DELLE DEBUTTANTI, a cura di M. Cingolani, Spazio Cannatella, Palermo
PREMIO CELESTE, finalista con l’opera “Incantevole Esodo”, a cura di I. Quaroni, Fabbrica Borroni, Milano
COLLETTIVA, galleria F.G., Isola di Favignana

2007
LIBRI LIBERI, libri d’artista, Complesso Monumentale San Pietro, Marsala (TP)
URBAN BEACH, a cura di M. Airò, Accademia di Belle Arti, Palermo
NESSUN CONTATTO, galleria Piziarte, Teramo
COLLETTIVA, teatro Politeama, Palermo
PREMIO CELESTE, pubblicazione su catalogo con l’opera “Skull Mania”

2006
PERCORSI PARALLELI, Museo delle Arti Decorative, Gibellina

2005
SALVA CON NOME, a cura di S. Scalia, Castello di Carini, Palermo

2004
SENZA FRENI, a cura della No Production, galleria Antonio Colombo, Milano
SENZA FRENI, Il Box dell’Arte, Orta San Giulio, Novara