Frank Marrari was born in Calabria, Italy in 1946 and immigrated to the United States in 1961 at age 15. Within a year of his arrival to the U.S., barely speaking any English, his father died of a heart attack.  He and his older brother began working to support their mother and younger brother.  Marrari worked in machine shops until getting a job with Nabisco/Kraft where he worked for more than 35 years. He owned a Machine Shop with his brothers where he worked a full-time shift before heading to a second full-time shift job at Nabisco/Kraft.  Marrari did this every day, sometimes allowing himself a half-day off on Sundays.

Somewhere through all of this, he made artwork dating back to drawings done in the early years of his immigration.  Marrari began making sculptures out of copper, wire, and steel more than 50 years ago. Perhaps influenced by the materials he worked with as a machinist, Marrari describes his work as memories and stories that exist in his head. Some of the sculptures are humorous commentaries on culture, like the kinetic revolving doctor’s office which is based on his personal experience of being rushed in and out of a doctor’s office. Others are markers of life, like the small child in a crib which represents the birth of his daughter. The sculptures are beautiful and skilled works of gestural wire.