Author: Tiziana Manzetti

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Meeting Italian ceramic artists: Aldo Ajo’

Aldo Ajo’ was born in 1901 in Gubbio, where he spent all his life. The full and wonderful life of a great artist.

Very well known in his native region, Ajo’s talents were internationally acknowledged only after his death, in 1982, when his ceramic art was paid the tribute it truly deserved.

Presently there are no doubts about his right to be included among the most important Italian ceramic artists from the 20th century, thanks to the excellent contribution of many enlightened art critics and curators, such as Luciano Marziano, Piero Luigi Menichetti, Secondo Sannipoli, Giovanni Rampini, Gian Carlo Bojani, Fabrizio Cece, Ettore Sannipoli. Although we never indulge in long lists of names, mostly unknown to our International readers, we decided to make an exception as our way of saying thank you to those who devoted their energies to bring such a genius to our attention.

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Emilio Scanavino – The Vocation for Plastic Art

Feb. 17 – Mar. 26, 2011
Turin, Italy

Mostly renowned as a informal-abstractist painter, Emilio Scanavino (1922-1986) considered his first steps in ceramic sculpture of the utmost importance for his artistic development.

He started working with clay in the early Fifties, in Tullio Mazzotti’s studio in Albissola Marina. Fascinated with the possibilities that a third dimension offered him, he experimented with clay, then with bronze, both materials that permanently entered his artistic repertoire.

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Terracolta – The Role of Rome and Lazio in the History of Italian Pottery

Jan. 25 – Feb. 15, 2010
Rome – Italy

A book and an exhibition will celebrate the art pottery made in Rome and Lazio.

The exhibition focuses on modern art and features 59 works, made by 14 eminent Italian ceramic artists. Emilio Greco (1913-1995) and Umberto Mastroianni (1910-1988) open the historical itinerary, followed by Giacomo Alessi from Caltagirone in Sicily, Cinzia Catena, Nino Caruso, Tommaso Cascella, Elettra Cipriani from Florence, Franco Ciuti, Marco Ferri, Antonio Gabriele, Antonio Grieco, Nedda Guidi from Gubbio, Riccardo Monachesi, Speranza Neri.

The book “Terracolta – La ceramica Romana e Laziale” curated by Norberto G. Kuri is a survey on the work of artists, who chose to work in Rome or in the surrounding areas, through the ages, from antiquity to recent years. A large section offers a profound insight on the 20th century, highlighting the outstanding ceramic works from the Liberty and Art-Déco time – if you are in Rome, do visit the House of the Owls in Villa Torlonia – and the magic of the Sixties and the Seventies.

Terracolta
Musei di San Salvatore in Lauro
P.zza San Salvatore in Lauro, 15, Roma
Ph: +39 06 6865493
Email: info@ilcigno.org

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Mario Pezzi – Panels of Italy

Jan. 8 – Feb. 3, 2010
Faenza – Italy

This year we Italians celebrate the 150th anniversary of the our country’s Unification. One of the first Italian ceramic artists to celebrate this meaningful event is Mario Pezzi.

His exhibition features 11 majolica panels that ironically and cleverly describe the vices (and virtues) of our country.

Hard to remain cold to his art and the themes he’s chosen to deal with. The Acrobat promising less taxes and more money is certainly a hot subject for most Italians, but it’s also the timeless character of the comedy of life, wherever it takes place.

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Pino Deodato – The Circus of Art

Jan. 15 – Feb. 18, 2011
Lucca – Italy

Pino Deodato work very much reflects his life: simple yet not simplistic, intimate and rich of positive values. It’s an art made of balance and a healthy sense of measure, on the pursuit of truths and meanings that mankind seems to have lost.

This specific project starts from a naked clown, looking at life with the playful eyes of a child.
He embodies Art, that does not need any ornaments (clothes) for its creative effort.

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Collecting Italian Art Ceramics: Ab Ovo Gallery

Ab Ovo is a small art gallery, hidden in a side alley in Todi, that is becoming increasingly popular among applied art collectors.

Its founder and owner, Leonardo Persico, and his partner, the acclaimed art jeweler Jacqueline Ryan, have been doing a great selection job over the last three years, presenting the works of Italian and European artists with a constant eye on quality.

Manuela and I met Leonardo in our first visit to the Gallery. We walked in by chance, attracted by a small signpost on the main street. He welcomed us, surrounded by amazing ceramics by Kati Junger and Christiane Wilhelm, cute textile accessories, hand made art jewels and one–of- a-kind furniture and objects of Peter Heidhoff.

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Riccardo Biavati – Poems, Dreams, Secrets and Tales

Until January 2011
Chiavari – Italy

Riccardo Biavati was born in 1950 in Ferrara. As a child, he loved to listen to the tales his grandfather invented for him. In an interview to Marialivia Brunelli he admitted that he never left the fairy world that he inhabited during his childhood. It’s a parallel world, where dreams come true and frogs, owls and blackbirds are familiar figures in the landscape. He calls them “his personal archaeology”, that he playfully combines with ancestral elements: the sun, the moon, the sea, wind, fire and, most importantly, mother earth.

Biavati’s works positively exude emotions and dreams. It’s part of their charm and you can’t help to feel light hearted and … smile.

“Poesie  Sogni  Segreti e Racconti”
Galleria d’Arte “Cristina Busi”  Chiavari
via Martiri della Liberazione 195/2 Chiavari (Genoa)
Ph. +39 0185 311937
Email: info@galleriacristinabusi.it

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Sandro Lorenzini – Wonders, Shams and Other Geometries

Dec. 4, 2010 – Jan. 31, 2011
Savona – Italy

The long theatrical activity as scenery designer and his interest in neofigurative art are the key contributors to Sandro Lorenzini’s ceramic works. Possibly these are also the reasons why he molds figurative forms, often archaic shapes that are suspended between dreams and nightmares.

In 1975, after many years spent creating theatre sceneries and listening to stories invented by other artists, Lorenzini started inventing his own stories, using sculptures instead of words. Clay had all the qualities he needed to give birth to the figures that were crowding into his mind.

In a lecture at the Foshan Ceramic Congress held in China in 2002, the artist explained why he was so much attracted by clay. He words were heartfelt and memorable: “ Clay is the material of creation, as many myths teach us: molding clay is God’s job. Using clay men can make everything and represent anything” (www.sandrolorenzini.it).

With patience and absolute commitment he learned the language of clay.

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Sprout Arte – Old Testament Genesis – Clay whistles

Dec. 3, 2010 – Jan. 10, 2011
Sacile – Italy

Denis Imberti and Stefano Tasca (Sprout Arte) are two ceramic artists from the Veneto region, specializing in whistles.

In Veneto the art of making clay whistles – Cuchi – dates back to the 19th century, when they
became very popular satirical weapons against the establishment.
Fascinated by their history, their symbolism and their primordial “voice”, Denis Imberti and Stefano Tasca started creating whistles as a group in 2001.

They’ve learnt from the tradition, without ever ceasing to experiment new shapes and sounds. Indeed, their work is a delight for each of our senses (but smell, perhaps!).

About clay whistles
As a  “breath of life, kneaded with mud and hardened by fire” (reported from Sprout Arte website) the whistle is almost as old as mankind and attached to many cultures around the world.  Continue reading →

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Graziano Carotti – Friday, 17th

Dec. 17, 2010 – Feb. 7th, 2011
Montefalco – Italy

Italian Ceramics - Graziano Carotti - "Venerdì 17"Graziano Carotti’s works have the subtle power to provoke or to astonish. They never let you go by without an afterthought.

His terracotta figures seduce you with their formal simplicity, their softly realistic clothes and their  deceptive sweetness. But their soul is elusive and mysterious.

Lost in their inner world, Carotti’s figures seem to be concentrating on finding the answer to vital questions. Which makes you wonder, of course, on the nature of their questions…

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