Franca Sonnino

Franca Coen (Rome, 1932), later known as Franca Sonnino, began her artistic exploration in the 1960s. A pivotal moment was her encounter with Maria Lai, who encouraged her to experiment with thread as medium of expression—a medium that would eventually become the defining element of her practice.

In the 1970s, Sonnino began exhibiting her work with her first solo exhibition, held in 1972 at the Studio d’Arte Moderna SM 13 in Rome. In the following years, she exhibited in different Italian cities, and her work was presented and reviewed by prominent critics, including Marcello Venturoli, Luigi Carluccio, Maurizio Fagiolo, and Ciro Ruju. In 1977, she participated in the group exhibition Segno e identità, dedicated to women’s creativity and curated by Marisa Vescovo at the Pinacoteca di Ravenna.

In the 1980s, Sonnino consolidated her career with numerous solo and group exhibitions in Italy and abroad. She participated in major exhibitions dedicated to women’s art, curated in part by Mirella Bentivoglio, and exhibited outside Italy for the first time in Barcelona and Australia. Among the most prestigious events was the 1983 exhibition at the Palazzo dei Diamanti in Ferrara, where she presented some of her most significant installations, acclaimed for their poetic power and the interplay between solids, voids, and shadows. In the following years, she also exhibited in Quebec, Rome, Bari, and Vicenza, further cementing the recognition of her artistic practice.

In the 1990s, Sonnino expanded his artistic exploration into the field of theater, creating the set design Trame di Voce in 1991. The decade was marked by inventive installations, such as the 1995 exhibition in his studio-atelier, which was filled with fairy-tale figures created using nets. He also participated in numerous group exhibitions in Italy and abroad, including an exhibition in New York. Notable solo exhibitions include Oltre il Segno in La Spezia, which marked the beginning of a long-standing collaboration with the Galleria Il Gabbiano; Passaggio di Confine in Rome; and, in 1999, La misura ambientale di Franca Sonnino, accompanied by a critical essay by Mirella Bentivoglio.

In 2000, the entry “Franca Sonnino” appeared in the fifth volume of the encyclopedia Storia dell’Arte Italiana del Novecento, dedicated to the “Generation of the 1930s,” edited by Giorgio di Genova and published by Bora.

La forma del vuoto (2005) is one of her most memorable exhibitions, held at the Complesso del Vittoriano in Rome, while The other/L’altro took place in 2008 at the Italian Pavilion of the 11th Cairo Biennale. Also in 2008, the Crispolti Archive dedicated the exhibition Franca Sonnino. Arte del filo, as part of the “Vetrina Ripetta” initiative in Rome. In 2019, the works of Franca Sonnino and Maria Lai were exhibited together at the Museo del Tessuto in Busto Arsizio, in the exhibition Maria Lai e Franca Sonnino. Capolavori dell’arte tessile italiana. That same year, the Repetto Gallery in London organized an exhibition titled Threading Spaces – Nedda Guidi, Elisabetta Gut, Maria Lai, Franca Sonnino, curated by Paolo Cortese. At the end of 2021, she participated in several group exhibitions, including Freedom on the Word (2021, Galleria Osart, Milan), Histories d’E Part 2: Between Language and Object (2021, Gramma_Epsilon Gallery, Athens, Greece), the Mdina Biennale (2023, Malta), The Different Revolution (2024, Artissima Art Fair, Turin, and Gramma_Epsilon Gallery, Athens, Greece), and City, Voices and Visions (2025, BFF Bank, Milan). Her recent solo exhibitions include: Franca Sonnino (2021, Frieze Masters, London), Thread, Sign, Space (2022, Gramma Epsilon Gallery, Athens, Greece, and MUACC Museum, Cagliari), Franca Sonnino (2023, Jochum Rodgers Gallery, Berlin), Imaginary Conversation (2025, Ciacek Gallery, Warsaw), and The Thinking Hands (2025, Gramma Epsilon Gallery).

Since 2022, Franca Sonnino has been represented by the Gramma_Epsilon Gallery in Athens.