About Betty Scarpino
Learn about internationally recognized artist, wood sculptor, woodturner, and woodcut printmaker.
Betty Scarpino
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Betty Scarpino

Contemporary artist, wood sculptor, woodturner, and woodcut printmaker

Internationally recognized as one of the masters of her genre

“Artists create glorious objects when they incorporate their life experiences into a personal vocabulary, expressive of their own particular, splendid being. What I make is a mirror of who I am, so when I speak for myself, the message rings true and sincere.”

 

Betty Scarpino’s contemporary wood sculptures combine fluid motion with intricate detail. Her creative energy draws people to her, and numerous awards have come her way. Scarpino was born in 1949 in Wenatchee, Washington. Her career began in the seventies, when she began making furniture and producing purely functional pieces.

 

She has a degree in industrial arts from the University of Missouri where she also studied woodcarving and wood sculpture. While these early years did not develop artistic innovation, Scarpino mastered the techniques that now allow her to create wood sculpture, decorative art woodturnings, and woodcut prints.

 

Her abstract wood sculptures and decorative art woodturnings are in the permanent collection of many major museums, including the Renwick Gallery of the National Museum of American Art, Smithsonian Institution.

Grants/Awards

Collectors of Wood Art, Lifetime Achievement Award 2015

Arts Council of Indpls. Creative Renewal Arts Fellow, 1999 and 2007

Arts Development Scholarship, Arts Alliance of Indiana, 2003

Indiana Arts Commission Grant 2002

Teaching/Workshops

Betty occasionally teaches week-long workshops at craft schools including:

Arrowmont School of Arts and Crafts in Gatlinburg, Tennessee

Anderson Ranch in Snowmass, Colorado.

Betty Scarpino
Betty Scarpino at SOFA Chicago, 2017, Kirsten Munster Project Booth

Gallery Representation
Kirsten Muenster Projects

Betty at the Center for Art in Wood in 2016
Betty Scarpino stands among the artworks she made during the 2016 Windgate ITE International Residency, sponsored by the Center for Art in Wood, Philadelphia. Photo: Samuel V. Scarpino

Museum Permanent Collections

In addition to being represented in many major private collections of craft and wood art, Betty Scarpino’s wood art and sculptures are in the permanent collection of two dozen museums.

Arkansas Arts Center, Little Rock

Arizona State University Art Museum, Tempe

Asheville Art Museum, Asheville, NC

Cedar Rapids Museum of Art

Cincinnati Art Museum

The Columbus Museum, Georgia

Detroit Institute of Arts

Evansville Museum of Arts and Science, Indiana

Figge Art Museum, Davenport, Iowa

Fuller Craft Museum, Brockton, MA

Gregg Museum of Art & Design, North Carolina State University

Honolulu Museum of Art

Indiana State Museum

Los Angeles County Art Museum

Minneapolis Institute of Arts

Mint Museum of Art, Craft + Design, Charlotte, North Carolina

Mobile Museum of Art, Mobile Alabama

Museum of Arts and Design, New York

Museum of Fine Arts, Boston

Peabody Essex Museum, Salem, Massachusetts

Racine Art Museum, Wisconsin

Renwick Gallery of the National Museum of American Art, Smithsonian Institution

The Center for Art in Wood, Philadelphia

Yale University Art Museum

Featured Event

Indiana Artists 89th Annual Juried Exhibition (2019)

Betty had one of her pieces featured in a show which ran from April 5 – June 1, 2019 at the Indianapolis Museum of Art at Newfields.

 

The opening reception was April 7 at 3:00 pm in the DeBeost Lecture Hall.

 

Click here for a printable flyer.

Indiana Artists 2019 Exhibit -- Betty Scarpino