Frank Giorgini (born 1947) was an artist and educator specializing in

ceramic A ceramic is any of the various hard, brittle, heat-resistant and corrosion-resistant materials made by shaping and then firing an inorganic, nonmetallic material, such as clay, at a high temperature. Common examples are earthenware, porcelain ...

techniques, including

tile Tiles are usually thin, square or rectangular coverings manufactured from hard-wearing material such as ceramic, stone, metal, baked clay, or even glass. They are generally fixed in place in an array to cover roofs, floors, walls, edges, or o ...

and

percussion instrument A percussion instrument is a musical instrument that is sounded by being struck or scraped by a beater including attached or enclosed beaters or rattles struck, scraped or rubbed by hand or struck against another similar instrument. Exc ...

s. He teaches courses on architectural tile design at

Parsons The New School for Design Parsons School of Design, known colloquially as Parsons, is a private art and design college located in the Greenwich Village neighborhood of New York City. Founded in 1896 after a group of progressive artists broke away from established Manhatt ...

in New York.

Mosaic tiles

Giorgini was commissioned by the

New York Metropolitan Transportation Authority The Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA) is a public benefit corporation responsible for public transportation in the New York City metropolitan area of the U.S. state of New York. The MTA is the largest public transit authority in the ...

to design a

mosaic A mosaic is a pattern or image made of small regular or irregular pieces of colored stone, glass or ceramic, held in place by plaster/mortar, and covering a surface. Mosaics are often used as floor and wall decoration, and were particularly pop ...

for the Whitehall St. subway station. ''Passages'' was installed in 2000. His book, ''Handmade Tiles: Designing, Making, Decorating'' (), is a standard reference for making ceramic tiles.

Hand percussion instruments

He studied the traditional ceramic techniques of

Nigeria Nigeria ( ), , ig, Naìjíríyà, yo, Nàìjíríà, pcm, Naijá , ff, Naajeeriya, kcg, Naijeriya officially the Federal Republic of Nigeria, is a country in West Africa. It is situated between the Sahel to the north and the Gulf o ...

. In collaboration with percussionist

Jamey Haddad Jamey George Haddad (born July 2, 1952 in Cleveland, Ohio) is an American percussionist who works primarily in the fields of jazz and world music and specializes in hand drums. Biography Haddad is of Lebanese ancestry. From the age of four, he b ...

developed a modern

Udu The udu is a plosive aerophone (in this case implosive) and an idiophone of the Igbo of Nigeria. In the Igbo language, ''ùdù'' means 'vessel'. Actually being a water jug with an additional hole, it was played by Igbo women for ceremonial uses ...

drum. Some of his hand-made drums are in the permanent collection of the

Metropolitan Museum of Art The Metropolitan Museum of Art of New York City, colloquially "the Met", is the largest art museum in the Americas. Its permanent collection contains over two million works, divided among 17 curatorial departments. The main building at 1000 ...

in New York.

Personal life and education

Frank Giorgini grew up at his parents house at 40 Verrazano Ave Copiague, New York in 1947 and Graduated From Copiague High School in 1965 and then went for his bachelors in Education and his in masters in arts .

References

External links

Meet The Artist: Frank Giorgini
��biographical page at his company * —photographs of ''Passages'' * 1947 births Living people American ceramists Parsons School of Design faculty {{US-artist-stub