About Vincent Scilla
A graduate of the University of Michigan’s art school, Vincent Scilla is an accomplished painter, photographer and filmmaker.
Mr. Scilla’s photographs were first exhibited in the Michigan Artists show at the Detroit Institute of Art in 1969. Houghton-Mifflin, The New York Times and The Village Voice soon after published his work. Mr. Scilla next turned his attention to experimental filmmaking. His award-winning films Flyin’ No-Low Altitude and Thunder in the Afternoon were shown at the Ann Arbor Film Festival, The Collective for Living Cinema, and numerous other film events.
Since the late 1970’s Scilla has focused on painting. His baseball paintings, combining an isolated figure juxtaposed against a background of advertising, evoke an era before television. His best-known painting Spring Training in the Mountains was included in the international baseball art exhibition Diamonds Are Forever: Artists and Writers on Baseball sponsored by the Smithsonian Museum and the American Express Corporation and appears in the book of the same name published by Chronicle Books.
In 2005, The Butler Institute of American Art in Youngstown, Ohio exhibited Vincent Scilla: A Tribute to Baseball’s Black Stars. Other recent exhibitions include Vincent Scilla: Baseball Paintings at Bergino Baseball Clubhouse, and Big Women at The National Arts Club, both in 2012. Golf in American Art, in 2007, Spring Training: The Art of Baseball, The Top of the Ninth: The Art of Baseball and More Than a Game: The Art of Baseball, all at George Krevsky Gallery, and a solo exhibit Vincent Scilla: The Art of Baseball at the Art Society of Kingston.
Vincent Scilla’s work has been seen on PBS and ESPN, in print with Gettysburg Review, Art & Antiques Magazine, reviewed in the New York Times by William Zimmer, and included in several books on baseball and baseball related art. His paintings are in private collections, as well as the Butler Institute of American Art, the Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, the United States Golf Association (USGA) Gallery and the Atlanta Braves Ball Club. Seven of his images were acquired for the newly renovated and redesigned luxury facilities in the legendary Fenway Park, home of the Boston Red Sox.
Vincent Scilla lives in New York City and Bloomington, NY.
BOOKS & PUBLICATIONS
2015 Red Room, Blurb
2012 Big Women, Blurb
2011 Sandy Koufax 32@75, Xlibris Books
2011 Baseball: Paintings by Vincent Scilla, Blurb
2009 The 12th Annual Exhibition of Baseball Art, ePressBooks, San Francisco, California
2008 Political Animals: Donkeys and Elephants in American Art, The von Liebig Art
Center, Naples, Florida
2007 Golf in American Art, The von Liebig Art Center, Naples, Florida
2006 Top of the Ninth: The Art of Baseball, ePressBooks, San Francisco, California
2005 More Than a Game: The Art of Baseball, ePressBooks, San Francisco, California
2004 Art of the Game: The Art of Baseball, ePressBooks, San Francisco, California
2003 Series of Baseball, Tennis and Golf Prints, Modernart Editions
2001 Baseball Postcard Box & Golf Postcard Box, Stewart, Tabori & Chang
2001 Baseball: The National Pastime in Art and Literature, Time-Life Books
1997 Baseball: A Fascinating Notebook about Baseball, MQ Press, London
1994 Treasury of Baseball, Publications International
1993 Baseball Glory Dreams, American Heritage
1993 Baseball: A Treasury of Art & Literature, Hugh Lauter Levin
1992 Gettysburg Review, special baseball issue published by Gettysburg College
1990 Baseball, Fawcett Columbine
1987 Diamonds Are Forever...Artists and Writers on Baseball, Chronicle Books
AWARDS, GRANTS AND HONORS
2002 Pollock-Krasner Foundation Grant
2002 Honorable Mention, August, Woodstock Art Association
1988 Artist’s Space Exhibition Grant, New York, New York
1977 Artist’s Space Exhibition Grant, New York, New York
1973 Ann Arbor Film Festival Award and national tour
1970 Flint Annual Award Photography, Flint Institute of Art
MUSEUM EXHIBITON
2005 Vincent Scilla: A Tribute to Baseball’s Black Stars, Butler Institute of American Art, Youngstown, Ohio
2016 Vincent Scilla: Play Ball: Baseball Paintings, Italian-American Museum, New York City
INSTALLATIONS
2008 Fenway Park, Boston, commission for Boston Red Sox Baseball Team, eighteen 20 x 24 inch digital prints on watercolor paper, installed in the Fenway Park luxury suites
2007 New York Public Library, Mulberry Street Branch, six 20 x 24 inch digital prints on watercolor paper, installed in the lower level reading area
2006 Fenway Park, Boston, commission for Boston Red Sox Baseball Team, eight 27 x 27 inch metal panels with digital printed images, installed in dining rotunda
ONE PERSON EXHIBITIONS
2012 Big Women, The National Arts Club, New York, New York
2012 Vincent Scilla: Baseball Paintings, Bergino Baseball Clubhouse Gallery, New York, New York
2005 Vincent Scilla: The Art of Baseball, ASK Gallery, Kingston, New York
2004 Baseball: An American Tradition, 4 Star Gallery, Indianapolis, Indiana
1997 Turnstile Gallery, New York, New York
1992 Vincent Scilla: Field of Dreams, The Art Gallery, Center for Financial Studies at Fairfield University, Fairfield, CT
1991 Pitching & Fielding (No Hitting), Union Square Gallery, New York, New York
1988 Union Square Gallery, New York, New York
1977 Rizzoli Gallery, New York, New York
1977 Collective For Living Cinema, New York, New York
1975 Borders Bookshop Upstairs Gallery, Ann Arbor, Michigan
1974 Collective For Living Cinema, New York, New York
SELECTED GROUP EXHIBITIONS
2022 Stories of Influence Janice Charach Gallery W. Bloomfield, MI
2017 Wired Gallery High Falls, NY
2015 Baseball As Art, Cleveland Council for the Arts, Shelby, North Carolina
2014 Baseball World in Tokyo, Sakura Gallery, Tokyo, Japan
2013 Artist’s Tribute to Italian Americans in Baseball, Convivio Center, San Diego California
2013 Fore! Images in Golf Art, Myrtle Beach Museum of Art, Myrtle Beach, South Carolina
2011 Play Ball, Lancaster Museum of Art, Lancaster, Pennsylvania
2010 Sandy Koufax 32@75, Jewish Sports Hall of Fame, Commack, New York
2010 Art of Baseball, Springfield Art Association, Springfield, Illinois
2009 12th Annual Exhibition of Baseball Art, George Krevsky Gallery, San Francisco, California
2008 Political Animals: Donkeys and Elephants in American Art, The von Liebig Art Center, Naples, Florida
2007 The Art of Baseball, The National Jewish Sports Hall of Fame and Museum, Commack, New York
2007 Spring Training: The Art of Baseball, George Krevsky Gallery, San Francisco, California
2007 Golf in American Art, Naples Art Association at the von Liebig Art Center, Naples, Florida
2006 The Fifteenth Annual Roundtable Exhibit, National Arts Club and Westwood Gallery, New York City
2006 Baseball & the Blues, James Gallery, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
2006 Top of the Ninth: The Art of Baseball, George Krevsky Gallery, San Francisco, California
2005 More Than a Game: The Art of Baseball, George Krevsky Gallery, San Francisco, California
2004 Art of the Game: The Art of Baseball, George Krevsky Gallery, San Francisco, California
2002 August, Woodstock Art Association, Woodstock, New York
2000 Viva El Beisbol, Yogi Berra Museum, Montclair State University, Montclair, New Jersey
2000 Spectra Digital Arts, New York, New York
1999 Turnstile Gallery, New York, New York
1996 Stealing Home, Gallery 53, Cooperstown, New York
1995 The American Pastime in Paint: Baseball on Canvas, Hofstra Museum, Hofstra University, Hempstead, New York
1995 Touching All Bases, Gallery 53, Cooperstown, New York
1994 Glories of the Game: The Art of Baseball, Safeco Corporation, Seattle, Washington
1993 Avery Fisher Hall, Lincoln Center, New York, New York
1992 Eternal Spring:America’s Love Affair with Baseball, Maxwell Davidson Gallery, New York, New York
1991 Extra Innings, Gallery 53, Cooperstown, New York
1990 Legends of Baseball, Sports & Entertainment Gallery, Venice, California
1990 Top of the Ninth, Gallery 53, Cooperstown, New York
1989 Diamond Gold, Baseball Hall of Fame, Cooperstown, New York
1989 Grand Slam, Gallery 53, Cooperstown, New York
1988 Seventh Inning Stretch Revisited, Gallery 53, Cooperstown, New York
1987 Diamonds Are Forever...Artists and Writers on Baseball, New York State Museum, Albany, New York. Traveled nationally and internationally through May 1990
1987 Home Game, Gallery 53, Cooperstown, New York
1986 Line Drives, Gallery 53, Cooperstown, New York
1984 Postal Art, Contemporary Museum of Art, Ibiza, Spain
1981 Marie Pellicone Gallery, New York, New York
1977 Ann Arbor Film Festival, Ann Arbor, Michigan
1972 Ann Arbor Film Festival, Ann Arbor, Michigan
1971 Flint Annual, Flint Institute of Art, Flint, Michigan
1970 Flint Annual, Flint Institute of Art, Flint, Michigan
1969 Michigan Artists Show, Detroit Institute of Art, Detroit, Michigan
SELECTED BIBLIOGRAPHY
“Preview”, Gallery Guide West Coast Edition, April 2006
Crispin Kott, “The boys of spring: paintings of Vincent Scilla liven April at ASK Gallery”, Kingston Times, March 31, 2005
“Paintings of African American baseball players at Library”, Kingston Times, January 27, 2005
“Batman”, Indianapolis Monthly, August 2004
S.I. Berry, “Take Vincent Scilla out to the ballgame and he’ll paint it”, The Indianapolis Star, August 6, 2004
"Stealing Home", Sports Collectors Digest, September 27,1996
Thomas C. Ford, "Play Ball: The Art of the Big Game Has Never Been More Popular", Art & Antiques, May 1994
George Vecsey, review of Baseball (Fawcett 1990), New York Times, February 7,1993
Mike Shannon, “Art show adds spice to baseball’s HOF weekend", Sports Collectors Digest, Sept18,1992
William Zimmer, review of exhibit, The New York Times, March 15,1992
“The ‘Fine Art’ of Baseball”, The Sporting News, 1989 Baseball Special
Jonas Kover, “Art makes it’s pitch", Sunday Observer-Dispatch, July 23,1989
Ann Sargent Wooster, review of exhibit, Seven Days, Oct 5,1988
Jim Kaplan, “Bats, Balls, Beaux Arts: An art exhibit on the national pastime is on a road trip”, Sports Illustrated, Sept 14, 1987
R.D. Heldenfels, “Exhibit at state museum to blend writers, artists baseball and art”, Schenectady Gazette, September 12,1987
SELECTED PUBLIC & PRIVATE COLLECTIONS
Butler Institute of American Art, Youngstown, Ohio
Boston Red Sox Baseball Club, Boston, Mass
Atlanta Braves Baseball Club, Atlanta, Georgia
Baseball Hall of Fame, Cooperstown, New York
Gary Player, Naples, Florida
USGA Golf House, Far Hills, New Jersey
United States Sports Academy, Daphne, Alabama
New York Public Library, Mulberry St. Branch, New York City
Brown Brothers & Harriman, New York, New York
Cooper Hewitt, New York, New York
Larry Lucchino, Boston, Massachusetts
Stephen Milman, Pratt Island, Connecticut
Gary Gersh, Beverly Hills, California
Jay Tarses, Los Angeles, California
Nao Kudo, Tokyo, Japan
Alan Flusser, New York City
American Museum of Baseball, San Francisco
EDUCATION
University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, Michigan, B.F.A.
Detroit Society of Arts & Crafts, Detroit, Michigan
Eastern Michigan University, Ypsilanti, Michigan
Born, Ann Arbor, Michigan