New Clays – Languages of the Young Italian Art Pottery

Dec. 19, 2008 – Jan. 30, 2009
Baronissi – Italy

An extraordinary exhibition Italian Ceramics - New Clays Exhibition in Baronissi (Salerno)has just been opened at the FRAC Baronissi – Regional Fund of Contemporary Art – that will feature the works of a new generation of artists who’ve chosen clay to express their Art.

Born in the Seventies and the Eighties, they represent what’s new in the technical and visual language of Italian ceramics. A unique initiative, indeed, since it builds on the differing Italian traditions – Deruta, Savona, Padova, Vietri, Faenza, Lucca, Urbino and Salerno among the others  – and techniques, which include a number of experiments with contemporary images and materials.

In his introduction to the event the director of the FRAC Baronissi says that the exhibition features a carefully selected sample of the languages and the practices used in modern Italian ceramic art. These languages preserve the lively cells of the valuable Italian heritage while participating in the contemporary art experiences and blending clay with other materials and creative processes. Italian pottery is therefore a language among other languages, all of them having in common imagination, creativity and a contemporary spirit.

The artists come from all over Italy. They embody the past traditions striving to survive, the value of their roots rendered in a modern language. Sometimes it’s easy to recognize the geographical influences in the works of the artists. That is indeed part of their value and originality. However the regional heritage never prevails on the vitality of their contemporary art reality. What’s really precious in each and every work is indeed its tension between what’s local and what’s global, what’s individual and what’s universal.

Performing artists: Nicola Boccini, Licia Brunelli, Francesca Crocetti, Federica D’Ambrosio, Marco Fantacone, Marino Ficola, Luca Freschi, Marco Fusco, Stefano Giambogi, Barbara Mignone, NERO (Alessandro Neretti), Francesco Paternò, Guido Pecci, Pierluigi Pompei, Giovanni Ruggiero, Andrea Salvatori, Barbara Santaroni, Sergio Scognamiglio, Laura Scopa, Mariella Siano.

New clays – FRAC Baronissi
Convento Francescano della Santissima Trinità
Via Convento
Baronissi (Salerno)
Phone: +39 089828210
Email: cultura@comune.baronissi.sa.it