Francesca Pirozzi - Ceramic Art profile picture

Francesca Pirozzi - Ceramic Art

About Me

Francesca Pirozzi was born in Naples in 1967 from a couple of valued artists: her mother - Clara Garesio - noted faentine ceramist (the precious series of plates commissioned by the Shah of Persia was made by Clara Garesio when she was only 17 years old) moved to Naples in the 60’s to re-found the Institute of Porcelain of Capodimonte. Clara Garesio passed on to her daughter Francesca the love for ceramics, the taste for decoration and the secrets to use polychromatic enamels. Francesca’s father - Giuseppe Pirozzi - academic sculptor, recognized artist and talented master in the ancient lost-wax casting, transmitted Francesca the pleasure of eliciting the forms by addiction when modelling clay, together with the intellectual openness to bypass fashion and give voice - through art - to all internal sounds and images. After scientific studies, Francesca took two degrees in Architecture and Conservation of Cultural Assets. Following these academic degrees, Francesca started research activities both for the “Soprintendenza ai Beni Artistici and Storici” in Naples and for the “Accademia Nazionale di San Luca” in Rome. She teaches art and history of art in public schools as well as special ceramics and art classes, resulting in ceramic murals, ornamental plastics and decorative panels & wall relieves, shown in public areas and buildings. Francesca is carrying out a flourishing artistic activity in different fields: research and studies, architectural planning and design, graphics, painting and, of course, ceramics sculptures. Her credits include several publications, ranging from the history of art to the reviews of contemporary art.[LOVEMYFLASH][/LOVEMYFLASH]

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The technique of workmanship is the same adopted thousands of years ago by the creative genius of man, who starts to mold common useful objects from the earth, while at the same time satisfying the primary need of beauty. In the same way, the artist models her own sculptures in clay starting off with the idea of the container – vase, pitcher, box – and then, using her own imagination, departs from that form, transforming the characteristics of the object to the extent that they almost dominate its original function. After the first baking, the terracotta work is colored with special polychrome enamels, combined and composed so as to confer to the surface a vivid brightness and a singular mélange effect, played out by particular chromatic variations, resulting from research and experimentation.

DIANA AND ATTEONE, terracotta, hand shaped, enamel colouring, 52x52x26cm, 2008.

VITA MEA, terracotta, hand shaped, enamel colouring, 31x22x19cm, 2008.
The work (piece) is born of formal research which draws inspiration from zoomorphic elements with symbolic and evocative value: the sequence of jaws that grip the prey, alludes to the life that is fed from the sacrifice of other people, as in the ancient Latin phrase “mors tua vita mea”, salvation is gained at the cost of the remorse for the end of the other. The egg that concludes the series is, since the most remote times, a vital and positive symbol, an emblem of new life, a metaphor of rebirth of bodies and nature.

"HOT"WATER JUG, terracotta, hand shaped, enamel colouring, 22x22x6cm, 2005.
Selected and first stage of judging passed at 8th International Ceramics Competition MINO, Japan
This work derives from a graphic project that clearly finds its inspiration in images from the animal kingdom and is translated into a formal and functional synthesis which, though giving priority to linear language, does not neglect the ergonomic aspect of the object. The (reproductive) synthesis of the two animals and the form of the circle tend towards a linear purity with a primitive matrix, with echoes of Art Déco, well integrated with the functional idea of the object designed as a water jug incorporating a handle and two apertures for pouring water in and out. The chromatic language is expressed by means of cold and metallic hues.

BOTTLE OF DELPHI, terracotta, hand shaped, enamel colouring, 37x16x12cm, 2008.

GEA, terracotta, hand shaped, enamel colouring, 35x27cm, 2008.
The work is born from the formal research which draws inspiration from elements of nature with symbolic and evocative value: the breasts that burst out with magma force through the blanket (sod, bark, root), they allude to the Great Mother, the primordial female divinity present in all the mythologies, archetype of the Earth, of fertility and of the nature generator, often represented with manifold breasts; the butterflies are conversely a symbol of the soul freed from the wrapping of the material; thus the spiritual element is contrasted to the physicality of the earth.

DONKEY MASK, terracotta, hand shaped, enamel colouring, 30x18x24cm, 2006.

MARINE, (3 pieces) terracotta, hand shaped, enamel colouring, 50x22cm, 2007.

ZARATHSTRA’S CUP, terracotta, hand shaped, enamel colouring, 34x24x24cm, 2005.
This work derives from a formal research that gives priority to plastic rather than chromatic language and finds its inspiration in anthropomorphic and zoomorphic references with a strong symbolic value. The presence of the animal spirit alongside the figure of the man appears in every culture, and especially in primordial ones, as an expression of the symbiosis between the force of nature and higher levels of consciousness. This is linked to the sacred status of the couple as a ritual object. The work therefore expresses this dual symbolic origin in a modern key, intended to be ironic, rich and magic.

AWAKENING VASE, terracotta, hand shaped, enamel colouring, 34x24x24cm, 2005.

WORKSHOPS: WORKS IN PUBLIC SPACES


CERAMIC SCULPTURES