Register here. Please note this event will be held at New Canaan Library.

Join artist Mark Mennin and Glass House chief curator Hilary Lewis for a free conversation about Mark Mennin: Processi, on view at The Glass House through December 15, 2023.

Mark Mennin was born in Cedar Falls, Iowa and grew up in New York. He graduated with a degree in history from Princeton University, where he also assisted ceramicist Toshiko Takaezu.

He began to carve stone in Italy shortly after, making a living copying Greek statuary, executing commissions and preparing his early gallery shows at The Marisa Del Re Gallery and Victoria Munroe Gallery, among others. From 1989 to 1993 he lived and worked in Paris where he exhibited with Galerie Enrico Navarra and Galerie Von Lintel in Munich while producing a series of commissions between Le Muy and Ramatuelle in the South of France. He has also created exhibitions in Italy, China, and throughout the U.S.

In recent years, the scale of many of his sculptures evolved into giant landscape and architectural works, often involving hundreds of tons of granite. Years ago, this prompted a full move from New York City to a large indoor/outdoor studio in Northwest Connecticut. Even at this scale, the skills he honed in Italy are paramount in his work. The significant scale of his art has required ever larger arenas over time – leading to his collaborative work within architecture and landscape design. Nearly all carving is still executed by his hand. He has dozens of private commissions in large landscape situations coast to coast.

Presently, he has a one-person exhibition at the Frederick Meijer Gardens and Sculpture Park, and a 40 ft-commission in granite, Schuylkill Currents, to be permanently installed along that river in Philadelphia. Other collections and installations include the Laumeier Sculpture Park in St. Louis, the Longhouse Reserve, Grounds for Sculpture in Hamilton NJ , The Berkshire Botanical Gardens in Stockbridge, MA , Stanford University Law School, The HO Smith Botanical Gardens and The Veterans Plaza, the Palmer Museum at Penn State University, the DeCordova Museum in Lincoln MA, The Judy Black Park in Washington CT, The Millennium Sundial at The Bruce Park in Greenwich, CT, the Blaffer Foundation in New Harmony Indiana, the Chelsea Market in New York, and the Boca Raton Museum of Art.

Mennin has taught sculpture and art history for over twenty years, first at the Parsons School of Design and then at The New York Academy of Art in Manhattan, where he is still on the faculty.

He has become a dual American/Italian citizen and will be making a one-person indoor/outdoor exhibition in Todi, Italy, in the Piazza del Popolo and La Sala degli Pietre.

Glass House Presents is an ongoing series of live events that extends the site’s historic role as a gathering place for artists, architects, and other creative minds. This talk is co-hosted by New Canaan Library and supported in part by the New Canaan Community Foundation.