Paola Pezzi

Born in Brescia in 1963, she moved to Milan in the 1990s, where she attended the Brera Academy of Fine Arts following, among others, the courses of Luciano Fabio and Zeno Bivolli. His first personal exhibition took place in 1990 in Franco Toselli's gallery in Milan, followed by that at the Galleria Nazionale d'Arte Moderna e Contemporanea in Rome in 1995, with the acquisition of some pieces also by Giuseppe Panza di Biumo. Among the numerous solo exhibitions, those held at: Spazio PAePA and DesignElementi Hub in Gaggenau (Milan, 2022) are worth mentioning; Lee-Bauwens Gallery (Brussels, 2019); the Italian Cultural Institute (Lisbon, 2018); Palazzo Ducale in Mantua and the Art Loft Gallery in Brussels (2017); Galleria Peccolo (Livorno, 2015), the Italian Cultural Institute in Marseille and the Museum of the Art of Woodturning in Pettenasco (2013); Fabbri Contemporary Art (Milan, 2012); the Italian Cultural Institute (Strasbourg, 2010). Among the most important group exhibitions are The Earth has a memory at Lee-Bauwens Gallery (Brussels, 2022); GestoZero at the Santa Giulia Museum in Brescia, at the Violin Museum in Cremona and at the former church of Santa Maria Maddalena in Bergamo (2020-21); Portofranco at the Palazzo della Triennale (Milan, 2018); Redesigning the world 2008-2009 at Bocconi University (Milan, 2015-16); at the invitation of Bruno Corà, the Conference - International Exhibition Au rendez-vous des amis (Città di Castello, 2015); Lost object. Speeches on the method at the Pino Pascali Museum Foundation (Polignano a Mare, 2014). His works are present in numerous public and private collections, both in Italy and abroad.

“I don't use classic materials. I don't use bronze or even marble, they don't belong to me. I use the one I stumble upon happily and which allows me to slide towards other shapes and other spaces. The rubber that I have been using lately fascinates me with its ductility and its ability to seem different... it is a saturated, palpable, ambiguous, at times distant material. Because, after all, the material is so relative... What matters is the work. And the work dominates the material, enhances it and silences it, reduces it to non-material: it makes it immaterial... I would like to be able to grasp and block the motion of the waves, making it my own. The trends I look for, as is evident, are natural, almost as if I didn't make them myself. The works must seem moved by an inexplicable force, by conditions external to my making hands. I'm close to nature, but I'm not interested in using only natural materials. I am interested in the naturalness that characterizes the materials and the possibility they offer of being treated. I used to feel like cork or rubber. I don't formalize myself about the origin of the materials, I just use them if they correspond to me." (From a conversation with Federico Sardella)