Author: Tiziana Manzetti

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Giacomo Alessi – 50 Ceramic Sculptures in London

Sept. 28 – Oct. 11, 2001
London, UK

Giacomo Alessi’s work celebrates the glorious past of Sicilian ceramics while going for its renewal.
A deep understanding of Caltagirone’s millennial tradition of pottery making combined with a profound love for the complex and fascinating art of creating a meaningful something out of wet clay is the secret of Alessi’s sculptures.

Along with his handcrafted production – famous throughout the world – Giacomo Alessi has also been making his own “private” works. He takes pride, rightful pride, in showing his collection to a few privileged friends. But art cannot be concealed or silenced… his visitors spread the news and Giacomo has rapidly won international recognition.

Manuela and I met Giacomo Alessi in Caltagirone in 2007. We were starting our fine Italian ceramics web store and Giacomo was probably the very first artist we invited to join our project. A hesitant “let’s try…” was enough for us to fly to Sicily and visit him in his workshop. Continue reading →

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Todi – Summer & Wiese – We were there

Sept. 4 – Oct. 30, 2011
Todi, Italy

The exhibition featuring the works of Roland Summer and Christina Wiese opened last Sunday and we were there to meet the artists.

The Ab Ovo Gallery truly deserves a round of applause for a job well done. Not only are they introducing to the Italian public the work of two artists with an excellent International reputation, but the quality and quantity of the pieces on display is outstanding.

Meeting Roland and Christina was so special.

Roland told us about the pottery making techniques of ancient cultures and how he used them to achieve the result he wanted. The process he invented, called Lost Glaze, is time consuming, with a high degree of unpredictability and may lead to many failures along the way. Yet, the formal perfection of his pieces is astonishing.

Christina‘s work is completely different. As Roland put it, whereas his vases are empty, Christina’s pieces are full… And it’s absolutely true!

Plenty of symbols merge in her celebrated vessels. She makes them adding to a hand molded hull many small objects that she collects during her walks in the countryside or when travelling. Each object, she said, has a story to tell: someone used it, loved it, lost it. When she decides to pick it up and to use it for her ships, the object becomes a part of something that is entirely new and a new cycle begins. By definition, each vessel is unique, just like our life journey.

Her attraction for symbols and for “fullness” has also inspired her “symbolons”. Solid shapes, made of two or more pieces, that enclose small treasures: a stone, a feather, a piece of an ancient Chinese vase…

Summer & Wiese
Ab Ovo Gallery
Via del Forno 4, Todi (Perugia)
Ph. 075 8945526
Email: info@abovogallery.com

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Torino 2011 – Risorgimento and Italian art ceramics

I’ve just come back from a week in Turin. I immensely enjoyed the city. It’s lively, friendly, easy going and there is so much happening. Apparently the city administration decided to step change the image of Turin when the place hosted the Winter Olympics in 2006 and has never stopped investing in culture and quality events. Even more so this year, 2011, the year of Italy’s 150th anniversary.

Italian flags were waving from all the balconies, softening the severe look of Turin’s ancient building and giving to the whole place a festive look. Each museum and city attraction had organized its own special event to celebrate the Risorgimento, the political and military movement that led to the unification of Italy, and the city key role in its success.

To make the most out of my days in Turin I had a carefully planned out schedule, a balanced mix of art, sightseeing and good food (of course!). And when it comes to art, ceramics are always on top of my mind! Here you go: a short but juicy report of Italian pottery in Turin 2011.

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Gian Genta – Ou allez-vous, la belle?

Until Sept. 5th, 2011
Sanremo, Italy

Forty pieces made in the last five years to represent the true engine of our being: women. Essential, elegantly decorated, charmingly archaic women.

Creatively exuberant, expressionist, primitive and, more than everything else, deeply truthful,
Gian Genta is a self made artist who has always, stubbornly, refused academic principles, managing to be faithful only to his own inspiration.

During the Sixties and the Seventies he was part of the prominent group of Italian artists who met in Albisola. Particularly attracted by the works of Sassu, Fabbri e Fontana, he made friends also with Lam, Jorn, Rossello, Salino, Siri, Sabatelli, Bonelli.

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Alessandro Kokocinski – Earth and Fire

August 6 – Sept. 10, 2011
Montefalco – Italy

Make sure to save the date because this exhibition is not to be missed.

Alessandro Kokocinski is a powerful interpreter of the human soul, of its spiritual tensions and longings. His works exude pathos and drama: every feeling is allowed, except indifference.

The Russian fantastic world, the Latin America passion and realism, the 17th century Italian chiaroscuro blend in his paintings and surface from his sculptures, creating a wave of energy that grabs the staring viewer without any warning.

This exhibition will focus on the artist’s terracotta sculptures. The Bontadosi Art Gallery will host most of the works, but one, the large terracotta installation known as “Jacob’s ladder”, that will be set in the wonderful scenario of the former Church of Santa Maria in Piazza.

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Luigi Ontani – RossiniAria

July 23 – Sept. 25, 2011
Pesaro, Italy

Ontani’s solo exhibition is a tribute to Pesaro, the city of Gioacchino Rossini, the composer of The Barber of Seville, and the city that has become prominent within Italy for his long-established tradition of pottery making and the long list of ceramic artists who lived and worked here, like Ferruccio Mengaroni and Nanni Valentini.

Between the previous Chiesa del Suffragio and the Loggiato, eight large ceramic sculptures, the ErmEstEtiche, portrait relevant historical characters. Among them RossiniAria, the sculpture that the artist has made especially for this exhibition. As it often happens in Ontani’s  works, the artist himself plays the role of Rossini, combining a number of symbolic, literary, artistic and historical elements.

In the middle of the previous Chiesa del Suffragio stands the ErmafroDito Mignolo, a large ceramic sculture. On the walls the Vizi Capitelli, a collection of eight ceramic capitals that represent the seven deadly sins or capital vices plus one, added by the artist. It’s the capital of the boastfulness that plays with the suggestions of romanesque sculpture.

Commenting his Vizi Capitelli the artist says that they are not the Stations of the Cross but the Stations of the Pleasure Seeking. The space of the exhibition is sacred to the artist, even though the Church is not so anymore.

The exhibition includes some photo-ceramics too: Saint Sebastian, NarciGiuda, Saint Paul, Ecce Homo and Tobiolo.

Centro Arti Visive Pescheria
Corso XI Settembre 184, Pesaro
Ph: +39 721 387651
Email: centroartivisive@comune.pesaro.pu.it

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Meeting Italian Ceramic Artists: Toti Taormina

A hot morning in Sicily. The road ran along one of the most fascinating beaches of the island, Baia Santa Margherita. A colorful signpost convinced me to turn into a narrow dirt road that seemed to point straight to a steep red mountain facing the Mediterranean Sea. After a while I saw on my right a brick hut with a shadowy porch: Toti Taormina’s studio lost in the middle of the fragrance and the colors of the Sicilian landscape.

There were people crowding the tiny wood-paneled “showroom”, where ceramics stood all over the place: on the floor, on the shelves, on coffee tables, hanging from the walls and the doors, inside and outside. In the middle of everything Toti himself, chatting with everybody at the same time. Continue reading →

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Todi – Summer & Wiese

Sept. 4 – Oct. 30, 2011
Todi, Italy

I know, I know… it’s not Italian pottery … Still it’s most beautiful pottery and we feel it’s just right to promote the hard work of the Ab Ovo Gallery in bringing to us the works of Roland Summer and Christina Wiese, two well established Austrian artists with a wide International reputation.

Roland Summer is a master of technical perfection. He makes mostly vases slowly hand building his shapes adding layer after layer from the bottom up. This process, known as coil building, is the earliest pottery making method and it offers the highest degree of control over the size and shape of wares.

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Antonella Ravagli and Alfredo Gioventu’ – Verba Manent

June 11 – July 3, 2011
Sestri Levante – Italy

The exhibition explores the relationship between ceramics and the world of written signs, that the two artists have been analyzing thru their works.

Antonella Ravagli, a ceramic artist from Faenza, has been using many kind of signs in her works, abstract forms of meaning that she paints, engraves, prints or shapes into clay.

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