Amy Toscani (born 1963) is a Minnesota-based sculptor whose large scale works are informed by an arts and crafts aesthetic evocative of childhood. Amy Toscani was born in 1963 in

Dayton, Ohio Dayton () is a city in Montgomery County, Ohio, United States, and its county seat. It is the List of cities in Ohio, sixth-most populous city in Ohio, with a population of 137,644 at the 2020 United States census, 2020 census. The Dayton metro ...

. She received both her Bachelor of Fine Arts and her Master of Fine Arts from

Ohio University Ohio University (Ohio or OU) is a Public university, public research university with its main campus in Athens, Ohio, United States. The university was first conceived in the 1787 contract between the United States Department of the Treasury#Re ...

Work

Amy Toscani's whimsical sculptures have been exhibited across the

Twin Cities Twin cities are a special case of two neighboring cities or urban centres that grow into a single conurbation – or narrowly separated urban areas – over time. There are no formal criteria, but twin cities are generally comparable in stat ...

including the

University of Minnesota The University of Minnesota Twin Cities (historically known as University of Minnesota) is a public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in the Minneapolis–Saint Paul, Twin Cities of Minneapolis and Saint ...

, in Saint Paul's Western Sculpture Park, The

Minneapolis Institute of Art The Minneapolis Institute of Art (Mia) is an arts museum located in Minneapolis, Minnesota, United States. Home to more than 90,000 works of art representing 5,000 years of world history, Mia is one of the List of largest art museums, largest ar ...

s, Rosalux Gallery in Minneapolis, and

Franconia Sculpture Park Franconia Sculpture Park is an outdoor sculpture park in Franconia, Minnesota, United States, that offers a 50-acre outdoor museum, active artist residency program, and a depth and breadth of community arts programming for a diverse and engaged p ...

. Chad Rutter characterizes Toscani's work as uniquely Midwestern in its aesthetic, due in part to her choice of source materials often being found in local thrift shops and merged with reconstituted plastic and steel. Toscani received

Jerome Foundation James Jerome Hill II (March 2, 1905 – November 21, 1972) was an American filmmaker and artist known for his award-winning documentary and experimental films, one of which won him an Academy Award. Career Hill was the child of railroad executiv ...

grants in 1999, 2005 and 2006, a

Bush Foundation The Bush Foundation is a charitable organization in the United States. It invests in programs in Minnesota, North Dakota, South Dakota and the 23 Native nations that share this geography. They work through open grantmaking programs to support e ...

grant in 2004 and a McKnight Artist Fellowship in 2013/14.

References

20th-century American sculptors 21st-century American sculptors 21st-century American women sculptors Artists from Dayton, Ohio Ohio University alumni 1963 births Living people Sculptors from Ohio 20th-century American women sculptors {{US-sculptor-stub