Materially Speaking

See pictures and read more on materiallyspeaking.com Nicola Stagetti of Stagetti Studios in Pietrasanta, and Robin Sethi, the project coordinator from India, describe the creation of Pramashwar the Infinite. Artisan and studio head Nicola Stagetti spoke to us from his studios, where historic busts line the shelves and the familiar roar of his robot emanates from the next room. Nicola completed his...

See pictures and read more on materiallyspeaking.com John Greer finds art gives him an invaluable structure in life. Expressing himself in form is more important than a visual language. Professor of sculpture for 26 years at the Nova Scotia College of Art and Design in Halifax, John was the catalyst for the ‘Halifax Sculpture’ movement in the 1990s which was rooted in minimalism and conceptualism....

See pictures and read more on materiallyspeaking.com Carnevale originated in pagan rituals celebrating winter turning to spring. For Christians it offers a brief hiatus before the rigours of Lent – hence the name ‘carnem levare’ – which means ‘to take away meat’. This is a time to create chaos, to question and poke fun at authority and, for the artisans of Viareggio, the opportunity to say somethi...

See pictures and read more on materiallyspeaking.com Silvano Cattaï born in Belgium, of Italian parentage, came to be an artist in Italy by way of making films in New York. After years in sculpture he finally came back to painting but this time with a sculptural angle, using a plasma gun and paint on aluminium. Silvano’s studio houses his powerful plasma equipment, and protective gear. On the wall...

See pictures and read more on materiallyspeaking.com German born Vanessa Paschakarnis migrated to Nova Scotia before coming to Pietrasanta in northern Italy. Hers is a philosophical approach to sculpture. I met Vanessa through Californian photographer, Gail Skoff, who took a special series of photos of Vanessa, which you can see on this page. In front of her studio-home is a dusty yard filled with...

See pictures and read more on materiallyspeaking.com In the third of our Venice series, Mike and I are meeting furniture restorer Alvisé Boccanegra who trained in restoration in the workshops of the Church of San Marco. He tells how he repaired a crucifix after Venice flooded in 2019. Alvisé’s workshop is in the heart of San Polo on the ground floor of the building where he was born. Inside it sme...

See pictures and read more on materiallyspeaking.com In this, the second of our Venice series, Mike Axinn and I met Austrian born shoemaker Gabriele Gmeiner who makes high quality made-to-measure shoes in her workshop at Campiello del Sol. She speaks of her craft, her journey from Austria and why she chose Venice. As we turned into Gabriele’s courtyard we found her sitting at a large wooden desk b...

See pictures and read more on materiallyspeaking.com Piero Dri is the fourth and youngest remer in Venice, making oars and oarlocks - or in Italian ‘forcolai’. Since he learnt to row aged 4, rowing has been his passion. I came to Venice with sound specialist Mike Axinn for a special Venice series of Materially Speaking, during the Homo Faber celebration of artisans, in April 2022. We met three you...

See pictures and read more on materiallyspeaking.com In the Spring of 2022, sound specialist Mike Axinn and I went to Venice during Homo Faber , an event created by the Michelangelo Foundation to celebrate master craftsmanship. We wanted to discover more about the community of younger artisans in Venice - what brought them there, and why they liked it. First we met Piero Dri, a remer who makes oar...

See pictures and read more on materiallyspeaking.com Marianna Blier was born in Astrakhan, Russia but moved to Vienna in 2007. She now divides her time between her atelier in Vienna, Austria and her marble studios in Carrara, Italy. Eminent Californian photographer Gail Skoff introduced Marianna, and when I followed Gail on one of her photography trips, Marianna was standing on a table top, in a l...

See pictures and read more on materiallyspeaking.com Celebrated figurative sculptor Daphné Du Barry speaks seven languages and modelled for Salvador Dali in her 20s. She discusses her bronzes, her love of learning and her faith. Born in Holland, Daphné studied at Munich University and afterwards, at McGill in Canada. Later she enrolled at the Sorbonne in Paris to study modern literature. She had a...

See pictures and read more on materiallyspeaking.com Renowned sculptor Helaine Blumenfeld continually re-invents herself in her search for a vocabulary of form. Helaine’s work communicates on all levels: visual, tactile and emotional. She is well-known for her public art and her sculptures often seems weightless as she strives to portray something spiritual. Her work is a continuous journey of dis...

See pictures and read more on materiallyspeaking.com Nilda Comas knew she’d be an artist from a very young age, and now she’ll be the first Hispanic master sculptor to create a statue for the US National Statuary Hall. She describes her journey, from a childhood in Puerto Rico to coming to Italy and learning carving skills from the artisans in Pietrasanta. Following the shocking Charleston church...

See pictures and read more on materiallyspeaking.com on form is an exhibition of sculptures in stone held every other summer at Asthall Manor, Oxfordshire. Discover what goes on during its installation. Creative director, Rosie Pearson tells us about the finials by Anthony Turner on her gateposts which she commissioned in 2000, and how these sowed the seeds for creating on form. We hear from the c...

See pictures and read more on materiallyspeaking.com From a very young age Flavia drew and painted. She was always asking everyone around her for paper and colours because drawing was her language and her refuge. It was her way of processing everything that happened to her, much as some people use writing. Flavia is inspired by her childhood and her work often ends up being self-portraits. Even if...

See pictures and read more on materiallyspeaking.com Veronica was born in Buenos Aires, Argentina, where her mother taught drawing and painting. She learned alongside her mother’s students, discovered clay and soon started creating small animals and other subjects from nature. By the time she was a teenager it was clear that art was her path. She came to Pietrasanta, along with childhood friend Fl...

See pictures and read more on materiallyspeaking.com Filippo is a vivacious 24-year-old student at Accademia di Belle Arti di Carrara which was founded in 1769 by Maria Teresa Cybo, princess of Carrara, to support the marble industry. The Academy was founded with two schools: sculpture and architecture, but over the centuries painting, scenography, decoration and graphics were added. However, Fili...

See pictures and read more on materiallyspeaking.com With abstract calligraphic lines, Julia Vance creates sculptural forms in white Italian Statuario marble. She tells us how she created a modern altar , font and pulpit for a new church in Hønefoss, Norway, which replaced the previous church which had burnt down. In this episode, Julia describes a piece she was finishing called Passage to Knowled...

See pictures and read more on materiallyspeaking.com Guus Jooss lives in Holland but comes to Pietrasanta in Italy for several months a year to work in marble. Guus used to work as a museum teacher and researcher in the Netherlands when he wasn’t creating his own art. Before that, he went to an art academy in Utrecht for a year, but mostly learnt about sculpture through doing the work himself. He...

See pictures and read more on materiallyspeaking.com Badriah Hamelink comes from a family of Dutch intellectuals. Her mother is a professor, while her father is the poet and writer Jaques Hamelink . Her grandmother founded the first Arab study centre in the Netherlands. Her own artistic development however has leant more towards the intuitive than the rational, and when she followed her nose to Pi...

See pictures and read more on materiallyspeaking.com Born in Wales, Neil Ferber started his creative life making models and objects in his parents’ garden shed. After art college he made his way to Italy with his wife, writer Kathleen Jones , where he discovered the artist community working in marble and based himself in several of the studios there. At the time of our interview he was packing-up...

See pictures and read more on materiallyspeaking.com Cynthia Sah was born in Hong Kong and studied in the USA. She first came to Italy in 1978 to study and came back soon after to learn with the artisans. She has stayed ever since and now works in a studio complex with her partner, Nicolas Bertoux . Inspired by the form, movement and colours that nature gives us, Cynthia tells how she always looks...

See pictures and read more on materiallyspeaking.com After studying zoology, then going to art school in Bournemouth, Anne tells how it was the traditional teaching of Signorina Simi in Florence that made her feel she was finally in the right place. Anne stayed in touch with her fellow students who learnt with the artist and teacher Nera Simi (1890–1987) alongside her in the 1980s. Even when it wa...

See pictures and read more on materiallyspeaking.com Originally from Paris, Nicolas first came to Carrara with his father, also a sculptor, who was working on a monumental piece at Henraux. Now he lives and works in Seravezza, northern Tuscany with his partner Cynthia Sah, in an extraordinary pre-industrial building which was once an historic sawmill, where marble was cut for the very first time b...

See pictures and read more on materiallyspeaking.com Co-founder of Studio Pescarella near Pietrasanta, Jaya was born in California, moved to Switzerland with her family as a teenager, and later lived in Hawaii where she worked in papier-mâché, lava and basalt. In 1986 she came to Carrara attracted by the marble quarries. Jaya says ‘it’s important to me that my sculptures feel alive, pulling out th...