Ferrari Arts Foundation: Il Sole Bacia L’Onda; Exhibition of Recent
V. Ferrari Paintings & Fundraiser Get-Together
- Saturday November 15, 2025, 2-6pm
- 5429 S. East View Park, Apt. 3, Chicago, Illinois 60615
Public street parking is available just outside Virginio’s home. The apartment is on the 3rd floor and reached by stairs only.
Join us at Virginio’s home for an informal fundraiser and an afternoon of engaging conversation. As valued supporters, you are invited to celebrate Il Sole Bacia L’Onda (The Sun Kisses the Wave)—an exhibition of Virginio Ferrari’s most recent paintings, which pay homage to the sun, moon, and Chicago’s lakefront.
In addition to Ferrari’s vibrant lakefront-themed paintings, additional sculptures will be on display. Proceeds from artwork sales and donations will support the overseas shipment of 150 Ferrari pieces—featured in his Verona 2003 retrospective—to Chicago. Our aim is to raise $15,000 by January 2026, with our fundraising effort underway since April 2024.
By supporting the return of these artworks to Chicago (to a secure temporary storage facility), you play a vital role in enabling the Ferrari Arts Foundation to begin the next phase: organizing a major retrospective exhibition of Virginio’s art from the 1960s to today, laying the foundation for a new home for his work.
If you are unable to attend but would like more information please contact Marco G. Ferrari. If you would like to donate online please visit https://ferrarifoundation.org/support/
Contact: Marco G. Ferrari, 773-230-1106, marco@ferraristudios.com
This event has been graciously supported by co-founding board members Chris Anna & Mark Siegler, Manfred & Ingrid Raiser and Sandro & Claudie Miller, Christopher T. Considine, Eva Loseth, Alberto, Fabio, Marco and Virginio Ferrari.
Tokens of Recognition
I) As a token of recognition with a $1000 and above donation (or artwork purchase) you will receive:
- An acknowledgement of your support on the Foundation’s website. https://ferrariartsfoundation.org/
- The Virginio Ferrari: Full Circle 1957–2017 limited edition monograph art book ($150 market value). https://virginiof
errari.com/monograph/ (612-pages, hard bound, with dimensions of 12.5” x 11.5”, includes over 800 images covering all major national/international and public/private Virginio Ferrari artworks from 1957-2016)
II) As a token of recognition with a $3000 and above donation (or artwork purchase) you will receive:
An acknowledgement of your support on the Foundation’s website. https://ferrariartsfoundation.org/- The Virginio Ferrari: Full Circle 1957–2017 limited edition monograph art book.https://virginioferrari.com/monograph/
- A V. Ferrari “sun” necklace medallion (1”x1”, silver).
III) As a token of recognition with a $5000 and above donation you will receive:
- An acknowledgement of your support on the Foundation’s website. https://ferrariartsfoundation.org/
- The Virginio Ferrari: Full Circle 1957–2017 limited edition monograph art book ($150 market value). https://virginioferrari.com/monograph/
- A prototype model (3.5”x 4”, bronze) of “Being Born”, Chicago’s iconic public sculpture.
Fundraising Details & Timeline
– In 2003 Virginio Ferrari shipped over 200 artworks to his native home town of Verona, Italy for his major retrospective art exhibit titled, “Virginio Ferrari: Ombre della sera; 1959-2003” (PDF), at the Galleria d’Arte Moderna e Contemporanea-Palazzo Forti.
– After 20 years of being on display in Verona and later in Tuscany we are now preparing to pack and ship the artworks back to Chicago to establish an art space/gallery in the proximity of Virginio’s home in Hyde Park, Chicago.
– In 2024 The Clinton Family Fund generously established a $40k matching grant for the purpose of covering the expenses of organizing, packing, shipping, and the rental of a space to house the artworks in Chicago (Hyde Park vicinity).
– With donors generous support we were able to generate enough funding so that during the summer of 2024 we were able to create an inventory, pack and move all artworks, and cover storage expenses in the port of Livorno, Italy.
UPDATES
– We are now preparing a 20 ft. shipping container filled with 150 small, medium, and large-scale works. These will be shipped to a Chicago-based facility in the Bronzeville neighborhood, close to Hyde Park.
– This space will function as a temporary studio to preserve and display Ferrari’s sculptures and archive. It will also provide an initial physical space to organize the foundation’s programming, including community art and film workshops, artist talks, and public art project activities.
– This shipment and temporary Chicago space will help preserve Virginio’s work as the Foundation seeks civic opportunities for his work over the next five years. The space will also bring cultural vitality to the south side by promoting contemporary art and its relationship to the environment.
– This five-year programming cycle would allow the Foundation to establish itself as an active cultural nonprofit art organization. Over this period, the Foundation would gain experience to apply for additional city, state, and national funding. Yearly fundraising campaigns would help cover administrative costs, including management, grant writing, internships, and operations.
Mission
The Ferrari Arts Foundation is a creative home and laboratory for artists, where inspiring encounters between artists, their projects, and the public can occur.
The interaction between artist, public, and our shared spaces is at the heart of our model. We view audiences as vital, active participants in the creative life of each project; at our kitchen table, we take a holistic approach to advancing inquiry, the exchange of provocative ideas, and creative experimentation within a humanistic environment.
As a result, boundaries dissolve—between artists and scholars, as well as among members of our communities—as we foster new works into public consciousness and engage in transformative dialogues.
Vision
In the Ferrari Arts Foundation, we view art as a vehicle for igniting inquiry and imagination: for exploring the relationship between form and content; for illuminating the psychological parallels between the individual and the collective; for examining our place in today’s social, political, cultural, and natural environments; and for celebrating the power of the unique voice.
We hold the role of the artist in today’s society as essential and recognize that it can be lonely work. We nurture artists’ perseverance, support the evolution of their skills as they pose vital questions, and wholeheartedly affirm all those courageous enough to grapple with the questions that follow.
Because there is a deepening divide between art, the public, and our shared spaces, our aim is to bring them into communion with one another—to curate interactions so that these relationships can be bridged, dialogues can be inspired, and new insights can be formed around the central question: how can art bring healing and wholeness for all?
