Italo Scanga was born in Lago, Italy, and the deeply religious and ritualized aspects of southern Italian life, the mysticism and spirituality of the place, had a lasting impact on his work as an artist. Following World War II, he immigrated to the United States, where the family settled in Detroit. His studio practice included work in many different media, including painting, drawing, glass, ceramics, sculpture, and all forms of printmaking. His work incorporated an extremely broad pictorial vocabulary, ranging from folk art, popular culture, and art history, with a particular delight in found objects. His work often centered around familiar, domestic space, with imagery of food and wine, tools, vessels, plants, and objects of worship.

Working at Tamarind in 1989, Scanga created several editions, including the Collectors Club print that year, Moon with Two Cypress.

Scanga’s work is represented in museum collections around the world, including Albertina Museum, Vienna; The Art Institute of Chicago; Berkeley Art Museum + Pacific Film Archive; Detroit Institute of Arts; Los Angeles County Museum of Art; The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York; Museum of Contemporary Art, San Diego; The Museum of Modern Art, New York; Philadelphia Museum of Art; Rhode Island School of Design Museum of Art, Providence; and Walker Art Center, Minneapolis, and many others.

https://www.italoscanga.org/