Artist Serena Buschi

Serena Buschi is a contemporary fiber artist, educator, and experienced sound and energy practitioner. Her work bridges physical and metaphysical systems, revealing veiled connections and consciousness in a time of fracture. Of Asian Indian and Italian descent, she reclaims fragmented cultural threads through sari silk, layering gestures of mending with acts of disruption. She adapts traditional lacing techniques and Kantha quilting using sari silk, stitching together the complexities of hybrid identity. Sound has begun to enter her practice as another way to offer healing vibration and coherence.

Buschi earned an Associate's degree in Fashion Design from the Fashion Institute of Technology, NY, in 1996, a Master's degree in 1999 from Teachers College, Columbia University, NY, and a Master's in Fine Arts degree in 2023 from Massachusetts College of Art and Design, MA. She has taught the International Baccalaureate Visual Arts program for 25 years. Solo shows include the Flatiron Prow Art Space in Manhattan. Her work has been featured in the motion picture "Anesthesia" in 2016. Recently exhibited at Hudson Valley MOCA and participated in the festival Art in Odd Places, her work begins to blur the boundaries between art and healing, as she weaves her sound practice into her creative process. Her work is in numerous private collections.

"My practice is grounded in interrelated bodies of nets and grids, through which I explore repair, transformation, and the veiled systems of connection that shape experience. These bodies of work are expressions of a consistent, evolving language, one that honors rupture and restoration. Whether through suspended net forms, gridded fiber-paper compositions, or participatory sound and stitching, my work seeks to soften hard systems, trace ancestral lines, and disrupt what no longer serves. Materials like sari silk passed down from my mother, thread, wire, and paper act as conduits for layered memory and embodied ideas. I integrate saris with wire. Cording silk with wire serves as a skeletal framework that is responsive to weight distribution. Together, these materials evoke containment and fluidity. I use netting and lacing techniques without a needle or substrate, then spiral this lace with wire to create cords of fiber that fix in form. Mending is central to my practice, serving as both metaphor and method. Acts of knotting, wrapping, and binding reflect the human instinct to restore what has been damaged. I use repeated circular nets and mirrors that reflect ourselves within the cycle of rupture and repair. Three frameworks shape my work: Weight, which encompasses physical and emotional mass; Waveform, the energetic space between interactions, echoing connection; and the Grid, which provides structure that I strive to remain fluid, interrupted, and responsive. Transforming inherited materials allows me to both honor and disrupt tradition. Wrapping becomes a ritual of reclamation; tearing, an intentional act of refusal. These gestures break the illusion of untouchable beauty and offer me agency and authorship; it is the process of my healing. Through the combination of fragility and strength, I offer a visual cyclical language for navigating dissonance and renewal. I invite the viewer to consider what holds them, and how we might begin to mend and renew."

Tell us a little about yourself (where you are from) and your background in the arts.

I’m Serena Buschi, a fiber artist based in Bedford, New York, and a full-time educator teaching IB Visual Arts at the higher level. My journey as an artist has been long and non-linear, shaped by years of practice and learning from many incredible teachers across different media.

I earned a Bachelor’s degree in Psychology, an Associate’s degree in Fashion Design, and a Master’s in Art and Art Education from Teachers College. For the next 20 years, I continued studying with a variety of artists/teachers, exploring and refining my own practice. In 2023, I received my MFA from MassArt, and I realized that my artistic practice had come full circle.

The methods and strategies I learned early on at FIT still resonate strongly in my work today. My art explores themes of repair, connection, and transformation, and I continue to follow the path of making work that is both personal and resonant with others.

What kind of work are you currently making?

I have just completed a large lace and Kantha quilted mandala-like waveform work. It is copper wire wrapped, beaded, and corded. This year, I will continue working on my Nested Stories Red sculpture, a floor-to-ceiling latticed sculpture that I will begin to wrap in red sari silk and needle lace within particular areas. I will also be working on a large needle lace net with three waveforms.

What is a day like in the studio for you?

A day in my studio is always a bit of a balancing act, but one I’m really grateful for. During the school year, I often bring parts of larger works into my classroom, things I can work on while teaching. It keeps me connected to my own practice, and my students love seeing me making art alongside them.

On weekends, I go into my studio, spreading out materials, putting pieces together, and diving into whatever project is calling me at the moment. And then there’s summer, the time I get to fully immerse myself, uninterrupted, in my work. Every hour in the studio is a gift, a chance to continue to work on pieces, explore, experiment, and follow wherever the process takes me.

What are you looking at right now and/or reading?

Currently, I’m reading "Lines" by Tim Inggold. I appreciate that it is a wonderful reflection on the exploration and engagement of line through music, pattern, and cultural threads, philosophically and practically.

It’s interesting to see how line can be a way of thinking, moving, and interacting with the world. Reading it encourages me to slow down and consider how rhythm, flow, and the lines I create with cords of fiber appear in my practice.

Where can we find more of your work? (ex. website/insta/gallery/upcoming shows)

Website: www.serenabuschi.com

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/serenabuschi/