Swietlan Nicholas Kraczyna - Florence

snk barga, snk

M.F.A., Southern Illinois University, Illinois; B.F.A., Rhode Island School of Design

Swietlan Nicholas Kraczyna earned his Bachelors of Fine Arts in painting from the Rhode Island School of Design (RISD) in 1962 and his Masters of Fine Arts from Southern Illinois University in 1964. Upon completion of his graduate degree, he moved to Florence, Italy, where he has lived ever since.

Since 1962, Kraczyna has held close to 150 solo exhibitions across five continents and his work is included in the Uffizi Gallery’s permanent collection of prints and drawings. In 1967, Kraczyna received the Golden Florin of Florence for his award-winning photographs of the 1966 flood of Florence. In 1968, he began teaching and setting up printmaking departments in colleges and study abroad programs throughout Florence. From 1973 to 1980, while working as printmaking technician to Marino Marini, Kraczyna refined his personal technique for multi-plate color etching, for which he is best known.

In 1982, Kraczyna co-founded “Il Bisonte” International School of Advanced Printmaking in Florence where for ten years he was artistic director and taught color etching. In 1994, he began teaching drawing, painting, and printmaking at Sarah Lawrence College Florence, where he taught until the program’s closure in 2015. In 1998, he joined the faculty of Syracuse University in Florence, where he was art department coordinator from 2008-2012 and where he continues to teach courses in printmaking and drawing. In addition to his professional activities during the academic year, Kraczyna conducts an intensive, month-long workshop in multi-plate color etching in Barga (Lucca) each year in July and he exhibits regularly in Italy and the United States.

Artist in Residence:

Dartmouth College, Hanover, NH (1988)
Palaski University, Olomouc, CZ (1992)
Syracuse University, Syracuse, NY (2007-2008)

Publications:

I Segni Incisi, co-authored with Renzo Federicci and Domenico Viggiano for “Il Bisonte” (the first Italian textbook on techniques of etching), 1983
Labyrinth (pen and ink drawings on the abduction and assasination of Aldo Moro), 1979
Oneiric Carnival (multi-plate color etchings), 1982
Dancing the Labyrinth (multi-plate color etchings inspired by the music of Ivor Stravinsky), 1998
40 Years of Flight with Icarus (mixed media), 2002
Swietlan Kraczyna: Un Lavoro di 30 Anni (mixed media: various themes), Comune di Barga, 2003
The Great Flood of Florence, 1966: A Photographic Essay, 2006
Arno ’66: Fango e Ideali (photographs of the 1966 flood), 2006
The Marriage of Harlequin (mixed media) 2011
Amy Luckenbach: Life and Love of Puppets and Dolls; Complete Works (text and photographs), 2012