press release

Galleria Tiziana Di Caro is thrilled to announce the opening of "A very special project about ceramic", an exhibition which includes the latest production of Francesca Romei and Mariella Siano. The show is curated by Antonello Tolve and the opening reception is Thursday, 19 December 2013, at 7: 00 p.m.

The works, even if very different in terms of aesthetics, have in common the recovery of the traditional ceramic manufacturing, which is typical of this territory, but it is mediated through a modernist filter, which is in a way related to forms, in an other way to colors. Mariella Siano and Francesca Romei were both born in Salerno, and they are very close to their hometown, at the same time they both want to "?Refound collective imagination through sculptural athmosphere, in which the archaic is merged with [?] the contemporary."

After a Master Degree in Ceramic at Staffordshire University in Great Britain, Francesca Romei came back to Italy, aiming at the advancement of a self manufacturing design, avoiding serial production, persevering on the forms, and at the same time changing the decorative themes, in order to allow a perpetual evolution of the product. Her attention for the development of forms, and the recovery of disuse objects, plus a very elegant treatments of materials are all typical elements of her practice. For this exhibition she develops three thematic rows. Three vases ? Untitled I, II, III ? keep their objective peculiarity, even if the starting point is a form which flows from something else. They are molded on the shape of Amalfitan Coasts domes, but they are turned upside down, and minuted. Starting from the figure upside down Romei tips over a purpose of the object. The features of the villages of the cost are the subjects for an angular installation Coastal Village, in which once again, the downsized output is adjusted with a small space, keeping and evocative structure, which is typical of the object. Vasi comunicanti (Communicating Vessels) are wall installations, which start from an irreverent idea which is developed through the deprivation of a specific function of an object. So traditional "stoops" are transformed into elements of contemplation, void of an utility, but with an aesthetic aim.

Mariella Siano has examined in depth the ceramic tradition moving to London, where she studied at Central St. Martin. Back in Salerno she opened her own laboratory in order to dedicate herself to the analysis of organic marine, vegetable, and animal forms. Her interest for chromatic changes and for iridescences, help her to examine the development of the glazes, creating a peculiar and recognizable style. On the occasion of the exhibition Siano leaves her usual themes to develop a work about "words" , assigned into wall installations made with glazed ceramic, claims written by Giovanni Loria. Siano borrows some locutions written by him using assonances and words equivalences, which derive from short circuits of similar words, and from the developing of concepts which are related to the words themselves.
Words are treated as they were graphical signs, segments which transfer meanings and ideas, pass through a formal aspect: Spezzo legami pezzi di lego da rami, umani impigliati negli ami. Ami?, or Ideali = idee con le ali are only few of those phrases choosen, which run along the inside the outside of the gallery itself, creating word-games which have uncertain solutions.