If ceramics has always been born as a minor and less noble art than others because it was created to contain and used for everyday uses, the ceramic sculptures proposed by the La Mongolfiera art gallery will make even the most skeptics think again.
The ceramics created by Riccardo Biavati are not simple aesthetic exercises, but once molded and shaped, they acquire their own aura, becoming characters, icons and sometimes true divinities. For the artist from Ferrara, matter is the painter's "blank canvas", a surface on which to experiment with shapes, textures and colours. Having trained at the Academy of Fine Arts in Bologna, Biavati dedicated himself to sculpture, favoring ceramic materials. In the 1980s he founded a parallel ceramic workshop "La Bottega delle Stelle" together with his wife.
Among the numerous national and international exhibitions in which he participated and was invited, we highlight that of 1992 in Japan “Contemporary Italian Ceramics” with stops in Daga, Shigaraki and Toki and that of 2001 at the Lungarotti Foundation in Torgiano “Luci Lucerne Lucignoli”. In 2011 he participated in the 54th edition of the Venice Biennale and in 2018 he received the MAM/Master of Arts and Crafts Award from the Cologni dei Mestier d'Arte Foundation. He lives and works in Ferrara.
Vincent Maillard was born in 1957 in Paris, at a young age he moved to Italy and attended the Accademia Ligustica di Belle Arti in Genoa. Of a shy and reserved nature, Maillard is a great observer of the world and of the different behaviors and aspects of the human race; through his terracottas he gives life to a light universe. His sculpture is a story full of metaphors, irony and poetry rendered through two protagonists: the little man without a face, or rather called by Osvaldo Guerrieri "Monsieur Zero" who can be all or none and the books that represent values, morality and ideals.
His work is followed with interest by artists, critics and personalities from the world of culture; the presentations by Emanuele Luzzati and Flavio Baroncelli accompanied the sculptures by Vincent Maillard with sensitivity and depth. Since 1999, one of his works has been part of the collection of Chanukkah lamps at the Museo dei Lumi in Casale Monferrato.
The sculptures of Tonino Negri, an artist from Lodi born in 1961, are made of clay taking inspiration from iconographies treated in ancient times, while offering them new life and contemporaneity. The theme of the woman and the mother, the mater matuta, is addressed by Tonino starting from the shape of a vase which becomes a container of life which develops to the point of transforming into a carrier of water. Negri is also very attached to other subjects that stimulate his creativity such as the Ark, a place and symbol of life and aquatic animals. The artist trained as a ceramist and sculptor in the workshops of Gianni Vigorelli and Marcello Chiarenza and has expanded his personal research through travels in Italy and abroad. Among the most important national and international works and exhibitions are "Grande Arca" created in 2009 for the monastic community of Bose by Father Enzo Bianchi and that of 2019 "The door of the sea and sky" created in collaboration with the artist Marcello Chiarenza in Marciana, Elba Island, as part of the Marciana Borgo d'Arte festival. In 2020 he received the MAM/Master of Arts and Crafts Recognition, promoted by the Cologni Foundation of the Masters of Art. One of his works appears in the collection of the Pecci Museum in Prato.
The gallery opening hours are as follows: Monday, Wednesday and Friday from 3.30pm to 7.00pm; on Tuesdays and Thursdays from 10.00 to 12.00 and on Saturdays from 10.00 to 12.00 and from 15.30 to 19.00.
The unique works of the artists represented by the gallery are also visible and on sale on the gallery's online shop at the following link https://shop.gallerialamongolfiera.it/
For information write to This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. or call 0184 508554
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