The artist was born, raised and trained in Italy. During one of his exhibits (at San Marcos in Rome) the Director of a New York Gallery asked him to come to New York to work for him. The American Consul, before issuing his visa, asked Spampinato to create a bust of him. In exchange, the Consul paid for his passage on the boat to New York. In New York, he worked with his brother Clemente Spampinato who is a well known sculptor as well.
After moving to Chicago in 1954, he discovered that there was no foundry in the Midwest that could cast his bronzes. So, he opened his own foundry called the Spampinato Art Foundry, casting in the lost wax process. He also started his own private school (Spampinato Art Workshop, Ltd) and did some teaching at the University of Chicago and conducted seminars at Lawrence University in Kansas.
Many of his own works are pictured and cataloged in Volumes 2 & 3 of Bronzes: Sculptors and Founders, 1800-1930 by Harold Berman.
Between 1959 and 1967, Spampinato recast a number of Charles M Russell's works on commission from the Findlay Galleries of Chicago. Spampinato Art Foundry records indicate that there were 16 different works done, all in editions of 30 or less. The recasts are well represented in the collection of the R. W. Norton Art Gallery, Shreveport, Louisiana. Many of these are published in a book titled Charles M. Russell (1864-1926), paintings, drawings, and sculpture : in the collection of the R. W. Norton Art Gallery, Shreveport, Louisiana written and published by the staff of the art gallery.
Records in the estate indicate that Spampinato did works for Pabst Brewing Co., University of Notre Dame,, Indiana University, Encyclopedia Britannica, Webster College and others.
He attended the following institutions:
Liceo Artisticao
L'Accademia delle Belle Arte
Academy of Arts on Via Margutta in Rome
Scuola Internazionale del Nudo
Accademia di Francia
Member of:
International Society of Sculptors
Society of American Sculptors
