Art Curator Cynthia (Cynzia) Penna is Nominated for LABA Icon Award

Art Curator Cynthia (Cynzia) Penna

Beverly Hills, California, USA. 30th August, 2023. Cynthia (Cynzia) Penna, art curator, has been nominated for a LABA Icon Award. Penna was born in Napoli, Italy, and today she lives and works in Italy (Naples and Milan), and California (Los Angeles). She graduated in Jurisprudence at the University Federico II in Naples, Italy and from 1978 to 2004 worked as a magistrate mainly in Naples as an investigating judge and after a some years in the Court of Appeal, she attended the post of Inspector for the Ministry of Justice in Rome, resigning definitively from her job to follow her first passion and inspiration - art.

The turning point came in 2007 when, after leaving the judiciary, she fully devoted herself to art history, a passion that had stayed with her since high school when she studied with Professor Adriana Catalano. She continued to study and read about art history, and visited hundreds of museums all around the world.

In the 70's Penna followed photography courses with the photographer Gianni Cesarini in Naples and later obtained a diploma in Antiques from the University of Naples in 1992. She speaks fluent Italian, as well as French and English. Beginning in the late 1990s Penna became a collector of contemporary art, and together with her husband, Renato, they met with artists, gallery owners, and curators who opened up a different world from her background in classical art.

In 2006, she entered the world of Californian art, and had the opportunity to get to know and penetrate the lively artistic world of Los Angeles. In 2007, she made the definitive push for the foundation of the Cultural Institution ART1307, which acts as a bridge between the art worlds of Italy and California - two worlds that were not very much connected and almost unknown to each other.

Over the years, Penna has curated over a hundred exhibitions in Italy and abroad for public and private institutions, as well as for prestigious museums such as the Archaeological Museum of Naples, the Royal Palace of Caserta, the Musa Center at the Royal Palace of Portici, the Museum of Art and History of Lancaster, California, the Metropolitan Museum of Tokyo, the Municipality of Teglio, the Istituto Arte Japan in Milan, the Ambassade du Tourisme in France and many others. She has given dozens of conferences and lectures at Universities and institutions around the world.

• Consultant for contemporary art at Centro museale MUSA Portici (NA)

• Advisor of The Beverly Arts - Beverly Hills (CA )

• Juror of ArtEmerge Gallery Los Angeles (CA)

• Juror of Los Angeles Art Association -825 Gallery

• Member of AAMC – The Association of Art Museum Curators

• Member of Fractured Atlas

• Member of ACACIA Art Association of Milan Italy and donor of Museo del Novecento – Milan Italy

• Patron of J. P. Getty Foundation Malibu

• Regularly collaborates with the following art magazines: ArtStartWeb e ARTE IN in Milano

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