Artist Makes Living

The Faux Architecture of SanGiorgio Frat’Antonio

BY LEON NIGROSH

June 2005 – Yes, it’s true, SanGiorgio Frat’Antonio, better known as “Frat,” earns his living from his art, working out of his studio at 75 Webster Street in Worcester. An avid photographer, painter, and sculptor, Frat practices the art of faux architecture. Using sheet rock, wood, and paint, he has spent the past five years recreating a little of the Old World here in the new. His art can be as straightforward as a mural in a child’s bedroom or a faux Grecian stone bookcase (complete with fake cracks) in a private home or as elaborate as the recreation of entire faux marble and stone rooms in a funeral home.

While he can renovate rooms in almost any style, Frat prefers the Baroque era for its columns, arches, and lavish use of swirling ornamentation. His latest project is the transformation of Biagio’s Grille on Park Avenue. He recently completed the first phase of the makeover, an alcove rich with images of Italy’s Amalfi coastline. Three murals grace the walls, each showing sections of the coastline-hugging villages; one even features a view of Mount Vesuvius puffing gently in the distance. Frat has created stone-like mouldings to frame each mural and has included imaginative corbels in each corner to support the vines Corner detail that trail along the ceiling. The next detail planned is ornamental brackets that decorate the area’s entrance; incidentally, the brackets are plaster casts made especially for Frat by another 75 Webster Street artist, Janet White. He often trades favors with other members of that arts district including Amity Woodworking, photographer Nancy MacDonald, and glass etch artist Bill LeBeau.

As Frat progresses through Biagio’s Grille with this year-long project, each room will take on a different flavor. He envisions scenes reminiscent of Tuscany, Florence, and Pompeii, complete with wall fountains, pilasters, and other regional artifacts. His interest in stonework comes from his dad, a career stonemason until a back injury forced him to switch professions. Frat reports that “By age ten, me and the cement mixer and wheelbarrow had become good friends.”

There is another side to Frat and his approach to art – it’s what he calls “Louise Nevelson Meets Star Wars.” Combining his fascination with found objects and his interest in artificial intelligence (AI), Frat has begun a series of freestanding sculptures assembled from discarded computer parts and other technological components. His first major work, “Mother Board,” was featured in a recent exhibit at Worcester Artist Group. A tall black figure surrounded by a profusion of wires, a baby doll immersed in a stomach filled with green liquid –