Boston business magnate Paul Farina has a penchant for collecting beautiful things. Since his first Manhattan New York Custom Knife Show over 40 ago, Farina has honed an ever-evolving valuation of craftsmanship — the perfect articulation of artistic intention — in an effortless eye for beauty in all its forms. Particularly the sharp and shiny variety.
Paul might best be known as the longtime owner of Farina Corporation, Boston’s leading commercial and residential HVAC firm since 1958 and his familial legacy. And it has certainly been a defining part of his life: he began fabricating sheet metal duct work in the business when he was only 12 and has had an uninterrupted presence with the company since. It is also where his lifelong fascination for metal’s duality, its luster and its strength, first took root and it has provided an apt metaphor for the life that has followed, one built on blue collar ethics and the integrity of calloused hands, but inspired by the possibility of more. Of art.
Farina began his personal collection in ‘81, gravitating first toward knives and then — as he made contacts in the brokering world, traveled, and learned — to various antiquities and the range of fine collectibles destined to become them. “This is true craft,” Farina smiles. “My love is the guy in the shop taking raw steel and making something magical, building an unbelievable piece of history.”
After years in the industry, both brokering and collecting, Farina has finally realized a passion decades in the making in Farina Fine Arts. Here, he showcases pieces from his personal collection and the distinctive wares of a lifetime of artistic discernment.