Raymond Sicignano

Raymond Sicignano was born and raised in Brooklyn, NY, and since early childhood he was destined to become an artist. Upon graduating from Pratt Institute in 1981, however, he put aside his artistic goals and pursued other interests which included living in and traveling throughout Europe. This experience rekindled his interest in art, and he began painting again upon his return to the United States. Strongly influenced by the early 20th century Ashcan Artist Movement, the subject matter of his work began to focus more on urban scenes and cityscapes.

His work and interpretations are a natural evolution of this movement and capture the spirit and essence of modern-day cities from a personal and humanistic viewpoint, expressing the culture and sensibilities of modern-day urban dwellers. In recent decades, cities began experiencing a phenomenon known as “hypergentrification” - a process described as a renewal of vibrant poor and working-class neighborhoods. This results in an economic “renaissance”, prompting an influx of affluent people and high-end corporate franchises causing rents to rise. The longtime residents and businesses who made these areas desirable in the first place, are then forced to relocate, leaving behind a sterile and homogeneous landscapes of corporate trademarks and logos. The result is a banal uniformity to our urban environments that resembles every other gentrified urban space.

Sicignano's paintings capture and celebrate these unique venues that define our cities by expressing the culture of the people and places that define our neighborhoods while resisting the whitewashing forces of gentrification. His work can be viewed as an anthropological exploration of contemporary urban centers, where each painting stands alone telling its own story while the series as a whole, is a study that depicts and defines who we are at this particular time, and provides a history for us to reflect upon as our cities evolve in the 21st century.