Vincent Castagnacci is originally from Providence, Rhode Island. His early training was at the Boston Museum of Fine Arts and with George Demetrios in Boston and Gloucester, Massachusetts. He received his BFA and MFA from Yale University. From 1966 to 1973 he taught in the Department of Art at Old Dominion University, Norfolk, Virginia. In September 1973, he joined the faculty at the University of Michigan School of Art, where he was named Arthur F. Thurnau Distinguished Professor of Fine Arts in 1999. He lectured at L’Istituto Nazionale per la Grafica in Rome, at theTechnical University of Vienna, and as a Mellon Fellow at Kalamazoo College in Michigan. Castagnacci retired from teaching in December 2007.
Castagnacci has exhibited in solo and group exhibitions here and abroad. In 1980, he was awarded a citation and grant from the American Academy in Rome where he was a Visiting Artist for nine months. In 1996, Hope College and the University of Michigan School of Art mounted a joint, mid-career survey of his work, “Castagnacci: Works 1968–1995.” Castagnacci’s abstract work in painting, printmaking, and drawing arises from the principle of variational development. His work articulates a personal geometry, inspired by memories of the coves, trees, and quarries of Cape Ann. A five-year collaboration with percussionist and composer Michael Gould culminated with “Into the Quarry,” an installation celebrating the convergence of art and music in space and time. His work is represented in private collections in the United States and Europe.