italian

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Ceramic Art Galleries at the Museum

Until November 4, 2010
Faenza – Italy

Italian Ceramics - Lovers by Leoncillo Leonardi - glazed terracotta - 1954 - Photo credits: www.dorotheum.comThe International Museum of Ceramics (MIC) in Faenza is hosting an original art event. Eight Art Galleries have been invited to display their collections of modern ceramic works in the new 20th century building.

The list of the artists is impressive: James Brown, Walter Cascio, Giacinto Cerone, Giosetta Fioroni, Mirella Guasti, Luca Lanzi, Leoncillo, Luigi Mainolfi, Renato Meneghetti, Aldo Mondino, Antonello Santè P., Germano Sartelli, Nanni Valentini, Antonio Violetta, Sergio Zanni.

Some of the artists are already represented in the permanent collections of the Museum, while others are featured for the first time.

MIC is the largest and most representative museum of Ceramics in Italy. Its mission is to establish Ceramics as a primary form of Art and one of its key strategies is an active support for contemporary International and Italian Ceramic Art, especially since the expansion of the original buildings.  Continue reading →

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Lumen et Splendor

Sept. 4 – 26, 2010
Gubbio – Italy

Italian Ceramics - Lumen et Splendor exhibition in Gubbio (Umbria)

The exhibition opening today in Gubbio will feature the work by Umbrian ceramic artists Lucia Angeloni (Gubbio) and Maurizio Tittarelli Rubboli (Gualdo Tadino).

Their pieces have been conceived as part of a large installation. Tin glazed pottery and luster glazed majolica will play with lights to show all their magic.

The two ceramic artists have very different styles but they share a fine craftsmanship and a distinctive use of the third firing. For this exhibition they will test their limits and experiment with new techniques, in the attempt to inject innovation into ceramic art and stimulate  their fellow artists from Umbria to do the same, thus honouring the splendid tradition of this Italian region.

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Zeus and Europa – European and Italian ceramics in Todi

Aug. 29 – Sept. 12, 2010
Todi – Italy

European and Italian Ceramics - Vase by artist Kati JungerThis year the Art Festival in Todi features an additional event: a small but very qualitative ceramic exhibition organized by the Ab Ovo Art Gallery and titled “Zeus and Europa”.

Features artists: Antonella Cimatti, Wanda Fiscina, Victor Greenaway, Kati Junger, Rebecca Maeder, Rita Miranda, Luca Schiavon, Roland Summer, Ane-Katrine Von Bulow, Christina Wiese.

Leonardo Persico, owner of the Art Gallery, explains why he picked up this unusual name: “the idea was to be in line with the theme of Todi Art Festival, Cupid and Psyche. So I tried to dig into my school reminiscences and I came up with another myth, perfect for a ceramic exhibition, Zeus and Europa”.

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Evolution Art Revolution – a new frontier in Ceramic Art

Starting Sept. 2, 2010 in Paris, then on tour around the world until 2014

Italian Ceramics - Evolution Art Revolution logoThis event is meant to be an earthquake for (Italian) art and artistic ceramics, a powerful and meaningful attempt to change the course of its currently uneventful history – we’re open for discussion on this statement. Send in your comments!

We received the press release of the exhibition a few weeks ago from Nicola Boccini, founder of the CLS (Free Experimental Ceramics Association) and the creator of this extraordinary event. We grasped that something important was going on and we refused to publish it as is, meaning without first hand info and more clues on what the revolution was.

Yesterday we had a long talk with Nicola Boccini. Now we are definitely ready to tell you all about Evolution art /r/evolution.

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Deruta – The Magic of Ceramic Art 2009

June 26 – July 12, 2009
Sept 12 – 20, 2009
Deruta – Italy

Italian Ceramics - Deruta: The Magic of Ceramic Art 2009 - Photo Credits: http://www.comune.deruta.pg.itThe second edition of Deruta Ceramic Festival is about to start. The program is attractive, not only for Italian pottery lovers, but for anyone who enjoys live shows and art in general.

The events will take place on Fridays through Sundays. Here is a selection:

ONGOING EVENTS: every Friday, Saturday, Sunday
Anyone willing to create his own ceramic masterpiece can join Deruta potters at the Open Ceramic Lab. From wheel throwing to freehand painting, visitors will experience the making of pottery and bring home their own solid ceramic pieces. The Lab is downtown in Piazza dei Consoli and is open from 11 am to 8 pm

Stands displaying Deruta artists’ works will be open all day in the main street of the old district

Exhibition of the 36 Italian Ceramic Towns Association (AICC) at Grazia’s Old Factory

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2009 International Ceramic Festival in Montelupo – Tuscany

June 20-28, 2009
Montelupo – Italy

2009 International Ceramic Festival of Montelupo

Hard to believe… the 2009 edition of the International Ceramic Festival seems even more interesting than the 2008 one, when the Regional Museum of Ceramics had just been re-opened and the city blew the candles on the 25th birthday of its School of Ceramics.

This year the focus will be on modern ceramic art with the grand opening of the first department of the Museum of Contemporary Ceramic Art and Nanni Valentini’s retrospective exhibition – separate articles will soon be published on these key events.

Together with Nanni Valentini, other established artists will be honored with solo or collective exhibitions. As an encouragement to the younger generations and their experimental vision of ceramic art, the municipality has sponsored the production of many installations made by young artists and placed all over the town.

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Della Robbia: Technical Innovation and Creative Genius

Italian Ceramics - Cappuccini Tondo by Luca della Robbia (1475-80), Bargello Museum, Florence - Photo Credits: www.scultura-italiana.comAccording to Giorgio Vasari (1511-1574), the famous biographer of Renaissance painters, sculptors and architects, Luca della Robbia’s technique was so revolutionary that he’d be praised for it for many centuries to come. He explained how it was not such a hard work to make a clay sculpture and the only reason why clay had not been used much so far was that it could not be preserved over time. Luca, after many experiments, managed to invent a special mixture of minerals. This glaze, used to coat the sculptures before the firing in a suitable kiln, would make them almost eternal.

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Lucerna Circus – A Ceramic Oil Lamp Exhibition

February 7-17, 2009
Perugia – Italy

Frezzini&Zaganelli - Circo Lucerna e Romeo il clown - 2008Each year the Lungarotti Foundation harnesses the creative forces of important Italian artists to offer a new, creative vision of the oil lamp and its flickering light that accompanied the life of people for many centuries. Oil lamps have been used in Italy until the end of World War 1. They were usually made of clay and burned olive oil, that neither smells nor smokes.

This year the project was assigned to Stelio Zaganelli e Cristina Frezzini, two young designers from Umbria, assisted in the making of their works by the School of Ceramic Art Romano Ranieri in  Deruta.
In a brilliantly creative association of ideas, they have jumped from the magic of the olive tree and oil – almost sacred in Italy – to the magic of the Circus.

Inspired by the atmosphere of poetry surrounding the 19th century Circus, so close to human virtues and vices, their large ceramic oil lamps/sculptures represent the key characters of the Lucerna Circus:

Sissi, the slender and elegant dancer, always in the limelight, desperate for a loving soul to share her destiny with;

Filo, the slim funambulist, continuously challenging his records but depending on drugs to keep his pace steady;

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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.

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Italian Clay Art: Brunelleschi’s Madonna first time on exhibit

Dec. 15, 2008 – Feb. 28, 2009
Firenze – Italy
Italian Ceramics - Madonna di Fiesole - Photo credits: www.corriere.itAn adorable clay sculpture of the Madonna with Child recently attributed to Filippo Brunelleschi (1377-1446) will be on exhibit for the first time through Feb. 28th, 2009 in the Opificio delle Pietre Dure in Florence.

The terracotta bust portraits a young woman with downcast eyes, deep in thought. She gently holds her baby, who leans on her shoulder with profound trust and intimacy, interlocking his legs with her arms.

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