Antonio Pio Saracino is a New York-based Designer and Italian Architect. Saracino has designed buildings, monuments and products. His work is in museum collections internationally including the Brooklyn Museum, the Museum of Art and Design in New York City and the PowerHouse Museum in Sydney. He participated in the 54th edition of the Venice Biennale and has won numerous awards among which two American Architecture Awards from the Chicago Museum of Architecture and two Best of the Year Award by Interior Design Magazine. He was namedone of the world's 25 most interesting trendsetters by ARTnews magazine and recognized as one of the Top Ten Italian Architects under 36 by the New Italian Blood award. Saracino has exhibited his design work with Industry gallery in Washington D.C., Los Angeles and Dubai, as well as other galleries and museums internationally. His work has been reviewed internationally in publications such as The New York Times, Architectural Digest, Interior Design, Wallpaper. Vogue named Saracino 'among the most prolific Italian designers abroad.' Among Saracino’s past public projects are GATE 150 on the occasion of the150th anniversary of the unification of Italy for the Caraffa Museum in Cordoba Argentina and the MuBE Museum in Sao Paulo, Brazil, the 2010-12 Formula 1 World Championship trophy for ENI and as winner of Brussel’s Agorafolly competition, a public installation to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the European Union. In 2003, Saracino graduated cum laude with a Master's Degree in Architecture at 'La Sapienza' University of Architecture in Rome, where he worked as assistant professor of architectural design.

Antonio Pio Saracino's interpretation of Michelangelo's David in Florence from May 5 to 20 September, in collaboration with PMG, specially commissioned by New York-based Global Emerging Markets Group (GEM) is a“Philological” homage to the masterpiece. Antonio Pio Saracino has revived the matter of “David,” the white Carrara marble, for a modern reinterpretation of the sculpture, designed not for a museum or an art gallery, but for a public space in Manhattan, thus placing itself even in this respect on the trail of the original intention by Michelangelo. The best hope is that the “Hero” can represent, in the eyes of the men of our day, the same values of freedom, justice and civic pride realized by Florentines at the height of the Renaissance by Michelangelo's “David.” The Accademia Gallery in Florence, along the Italian Embassy in Washington, is pleased to present the work of Antonio Pio Saracino, which qualifies as one of the most intelligent, modern and qualitatively most significant interpretations in terms of the execution of one of the highest signs of Western culture.

In early 2013, Saracino was presented with two new opportunities: to produce a symbol of Italy in New York during the Year of Italian Culture in the U.S., and to create a permanent public art project for the plaza at Three Bryant Park. His idea, “The Guardians: Hero and Superhero,” is the answer to both. Hero is a gift from Italy to the United States, donated by the Italian Government with the support of the worldwide energy company Eni. Superhero, at 1095 Avenue of the Americas, was commissioned by the Equity Office. “The Guardians: Hero and Superhero,” consists of two public sculptures on view indefinitely at Three Bryant Park in the middle of Midtown Manhattan. The pair of 13-foot high statues, one in marble and the other in mirror-polished stainless steel, are positioned at the north and south ends of the public plaza at Three Bryant Park between 41st and 42nd Streets. “The Guardians” represent two civic heroes, symbolizing the past and the present, and are consistent with Saracino’s overarching aim to combine digitally generated architectural compositions with a powerful, timeless message of resiliency and innovation.