Artist Bio
Sandra Sgroi is a Boston based public artist and figurative sculptor whose work explores the human form, nature, collective memory, and the role art can play in shaping shared civic spaces.
Her sculptural training includes study at the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth, Barcelona Academy of Art, and Florence Academy of Art. In 2021, she completed a five-month residency at Geode Art Space in Navata, Spain, where she further developed her sculpture practice while studying and working with sculptor Eudald de Juana.
Sgroi has assisted artists and sculptors including Pablo Eduardo, Chris Janney, Eolo Bottaro, Eudald de Juana, and Meredith Bergmann on commissioned monuments, memorials, architectural sculpture, and public installations. Through these projects, she gained hands-on experience in armature construction, clay modeling, mold-making, casting, metalwork, documentation, exhibition preparation, and installation.
She currently works as Scenic Fabrication Manager at New England Scenic, combining project coordination and production management with hands-on experience in sculpture, carpentry, scenic painting, set construction, and large-scale fabrication.
Through Sandra Sgroi Studios, she continues to create original and commissioned artwork while developing monumental figurative sculpture, memorials, and civic artworks that encourage reflection, connection, and a more convivial public life.
Artist Statement
My work begins with the belief that the human body is not separate from nature, it is nature. I was initially drawn to the figure through its structure, movement, and the patterns it shares with the natural world. Over time, the figure became less the subject of my work than a way of exploring the human experience: memory, presence, connection, and what it means to feel fully alive.
I am interested in public art’s ability to honor the memory of what has been while creating space for new memories to form between people. I imagine sculpture not as an isolated object, but as an anchor within a living civic space. A place where people gather, sit, talk, observe, dance, make music, sing, and return over time. For me, public art is incomplete until the public forms a relationship with it.
My practice is rooted in physical making. I value training my hands, eyes, and mind to work with the precision and control we now often associate with machines. Drawing and sculpture require me to become aware of my own habits, strengths, and limitations, then use them with intention. This embodied knowledge connects me to the long history of people using their own bodies as instruments of invention and creation.
I am drawn to public art for the same reason I am drawn to theater and nature: each brings many distinct parts together to create something larger. Sculpture can unite art, architecture, engineering, landscape, history, and human activity beneath one shared vision.
Through monuments, memorials, and civic artworks, I aim to create places that encourage awe, recognition, stillness, peace, conversation, and belonging. The form of each work and the community’s role in shaping it will respond to the particular history, people, and needs of its site. Ultimately, I want to create public spaces that feel as alive as the people who inhabit them.