2 Detail of Three-B - Frank Morbillo.jpg
Apache Family Finished - Frank Morbillo.jpg
5 Concept Drawings - Frank Morbillo.JPG
Oxbow Off Set 2 Staying in shape. - Frank Morbillo.jpg
Detail of Three - Frank Morbillo.jpg
shift detail - Frank Morbillo.jpg 
Born in Queens, New York
BFA Alfred University
Independent Study Stony Brook University
MFA University of Montana
Currently living in Santa Fe NM

Frank Morbillo was born in Queens and raised on Long Island, but as a young adult moved west — first to Montana and eventually to Santa Fe, New Mexico. Morbillo’s work is clearly influenced both by the man-made landscape of urban architecture, and by the starker, more abrupt western landscapes which stand as evidence of the forces that shape our natural environment.

Morbillo’s first artistic love was ceramics. As an undergraduate at Alfred University in upstate New York, Frank explored and pushed the structural properties of ceramics. His first exploration in metal came during a winter session in coal forging, where he glimpsed that the structural properties of metals offered a whole new language. Learning to work metal added volumes to Frank’s artistic vocabulary; metal could be cast, cut, welded, and otherwise shaped by a great many processes. With metal, the scale of his work was able to grow.

After receiving his BFA from Alfred, Morbillo spent two years working in the building trades (thereby expanding his knowledge of construction processes) before attending graduate school at the University of Montana in Missoula. Some of his first works in Montana incorporated concrete, stone and wood as well as metal, but over time the pull of working with metal became dominant in Morbillo’s creative process. The power of the natural environment, so immediate in the Big Sky State, also began to influence him during this time. His relationship with landscape intensified as he observed the hydraulics of western rivers cutting through rock; the freeze-thaw cycles of snow pack eroding the great Rocky Mountains.

Artist Statement

1 Frank in slot canyon - Frank Morbillo.jpg 
In 1984 Morbillo completed graduate school and moved to Santa Fe, New Mexico, where he began working at Shidoni Art Foundry. His intimate relationship with all aspects of metal working, including the casting process, now enabled him to add a more organic quality to his work, forging a connection between his own sculptural aesthetic and the forces at work in the natural environment. The influence of these natural forces can be as subtle as the change in seasons, or as abrupt as a volcanic eruption. It is this dynamic that Morbillo strives to convey in many of his sculptures.
Morbillo’s continual curiosity about materials and processes led him to explore working with cast glass in the early 2000’s, and more recently with recycled cast and forged plastic. By incorporating a variety of materials and processes a broader creative vocabulary has continued to evolve, enabling Morbillo to better express experiences in the natural as well as man-made landscapes. Working with recycled plastic also completes a personal circle for the artist as it directly addresses environmental concerns that have grown in his life and work.  
Through his mastery of materials and processes, Morbillo continues to create unique sculptures that contrast smooth fabricated metal surfaces with coarse organic components of torn bronze, translucent cast glass elements, and stratified recycled plastic castings. These creative processes are at the core of his ability to express and emphasize the connection between Nature, Art and Humanity in the natural environment.