About the Artist

Dora Natella was raised and educated in Italy; she studied sculpture in the classical tradition at the Academy of Fine Arts in Naples. Later she moved to the United States for advanced studies in bronze casting techniques and for the opportunity to immerse herself in a new culture with fewer direct connections to a classical past. She went on to earn an MFA in sculpture at Western Michigan University, and has continued a practice that includes both teaching at the collegiate level as well as her own work in the studio.

Natella presently serves on the faculty of Indiana University, South Bend. In her work, she maintains an allegiance to a legacy of the figurative tradition from the Renaissance but with openness to contemporary modes of expression.

She was recently commissioned by Indiana University Bloomington to create an outdoor monument celebrating student athletes. The Spirit of Indiana depicts five athletes coming together in a huddle before taking the field of competition. It serves as a tribute to team over self, while representing the diversity of the student body at IU.

In 2012 and 2014 Natella received Indiana Art Commission Individual Artist Grants. Her artwork has been widely exhibited in many venues across the United States, including the most recent juried and invitational shows at: Brookgreen Gardens, Pawleys Island, SC; Art Department, Del Mar College, Corpus, Christi, TX; Marshall M. Fredericks Sculpture Museum, Saginaw, MI; Ella Sharp Museum, Jackson, MI; Manifest Gallery, Cincinnati, OH; Foster Gallery, Department of Art and Design at the University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire, Eau Claire, Wisconsin.

Her sculptures have won many awards and are part of several private and public collections, to mention a few: Robert Duncan, Lincoln, NE; Museo de Arte Moderno Juan Astorga Anta, Merida, Venezuela; Marco, D’Andrea, Rome, Italy; Oakton College, Permanent Outdoor Sculpture Collection, Skokie, IL; Midwest Museum of American Art, Permanent Collection, Elkhart, IN; Western Michigan University, Kalamazoo, MI; Indiana University South Bend, Outdoor Sculpture Collection, South Bend, IN.

Here are Dora's latest posts from Instagram.