I believe that the greatest undertaking of the artist is that of professional maintenance. As a matter of fact, along with spontaneous creativity, you indissolubly must add an elevated professional competence regarding technique; through reading and observation, the joy of experimentation, of combining, and of moving forward. Women, in particular, haven’t truly renounced their femininity or their conceptions of life, but express it in a sophisticated synthesis, a balance of forms and integrated language in their work. My design is born from a rereading of past artistic production through a filter of formal personal sensibility directed towards the making of a functional or sculptural object. The forms generated are aesthetically accurate and display a strong sense of the real feminine character, of grace, of elegance and of attention to detail. Thus, “Crespines”, objects originally of Faentinian tradition that were used in the grand European courts of the 16th and 17th centuries, have been remade in porcelain paper clay for a new collection which began in 2005. It was challenging and exciting to create forms derivative of the past, but reconsidered with completely new techniques and philosophies. These pieces have been formed using an incredibly thin decorative weft that ultimately creates their supporting structure: it’s an art of addition, not of subtraction, as was commonly done in the original renaissance crespines, where the perforations were created by piercing and cutting out shapes from the existing closed forms. The procedure anticipates the moulding with a freehand syringe on concave or convex refractory supports and requires a high temperature firing. Sometimes the forms are then mounted on hand-blown glass bases, which have been designed and commissioned in Tuscany. The round shape is prevalent in my work, which can often be found in Italian Renaissance architecture They present themselves in this way, like ample goblets in ceramic filigree, a type of interwoven lace of overlapping spirals in precious porcelain “thread”. Objects of light and vulnerability, which live in illumination and shadow, in tactility, in supreme whiteness and imperceptible vibrations. It’s a new way of interpreting this material, of which the confines no longer speak of “physical mass”, but instead of evocative transparencies. In the installations, life and existence are given to the shadows. The butterflies which are created on the wall are born of a combination of one porcelain wing and the other which is created only virtually by it’s own shadow. In this way, the expressive and metamorphic world of the shadows are so evident. One part of the work is real while the other is temporary because the shadows are ephemeral and elusive. Biografy Antonella Cimatti was born in Faenza. One of Carlo Zauli’s pupils at the Istituto d’Arte (State School of Ceramics) in Faenza, she went on to obtain a degree with distinction from the Accademia di Belle Arti (Fine Arts Academy) in Bologna. She has been teaching Design at the Istituto d’Arte (State School of Ceramics) in Faenza since 1979. She completed the following training internships abroad: Doban Decoration Technique (Toki-Gifu, Japan, 1981), Porcelain Filigree (Limoges, France, 1985) and Jewerly Design (Portsmouth, Great Britain, 1988). She has also taught for brief periods, through projects such as “Artist Fellowship Exchange, European Communities” in Art and Design Schools in Portsmouth, England, in 1991 and at Turnhout in Belgium in 1995. From 1982 to 1986 she was involved in various artistic research movements which were theorized about by art critics including: “A Tempo e a Fuoco” by Vittorio Fagone and Gian Carlo Bojani, and “De Sculptura” with Filiberto Menna; she has also taken part in numerous exhibitions throughout Italy and abroad with the group “La Nuova Ceramica” curated by Franco Solmi. In addition, since 1986, she has been designing in collaboration with Ceramica Flavia of Montelupo Fiorentino, Murano and Empoli (objects and lamps in glass), the old Fabbrica Casa Museo “Giuseppe Mazzotti 1903” in Albisola Marina, the Liverani-Spadoni Studios as well as with Laura Silvagni in Faenza. And is currently showing and competing in Italy and abroad (France, Spain, Slovenia, Russia, South Korea, Australia), winning awards and acknowledgments, the most prestigious being the Silver Prize, “The 4th World Ceramic Biennale 2007 Korea International Competition”.Recently her works have been published in Ceramics Art & Perception n°89/2012 , in New Ceramics The European Ceramics Magazine n° 4/ 2010, in D’A n°8/ 2011, cover and article and in Revista Cerámica n.º 122/ 2011. Recently she has been invited to participate in “2009 Nanfeng Kiln International Ceramic Work Camp” in Foshan, Guangdong, China where she created a sculpture using paperclay. In 2010 she has been invited in “paperclay | TODAY Artist Symposium”, in Laguna Beach, California and in the shows: “2010 Second International Biennial Exhibition of Contemporary Teapot Art”, Shanghai, China; “Ceramica storia di donne, Tradizione e attualità a Faenza”, MIC Museo Internazionale delle Ceramiche, in Faenza, Italy. In 2011, she was invited to participate in the 54th International Art Exhibition at the Venice Biennial, in the Italian Pavilion, for the Emilia Romagna region, and to the workshop 10 days at the Gyeonggi International CeraMIX Biennale 2011, South Korea, Honorable mention at the Cheongju Craft Biennale,Cheongju, South Korea and she have held 2 workshops in New Delhi, Sanskriti Foundation. In 2012 she had Honorable mention with merit at The 4rd Taiwan Gold Teapot exhibition at Yingge Ceramics Museum, Taiwan, she was invited at the MunGyeong Chasabal(Tea Bowls) Festival 2012,South Korea and in China in Shanghai 2012 third China International Pot Art Biennal Exhibition, and in Jingdezhen Jingdezhen International Ceramicexhibition. 2012-2013 Vaselle d’autore, arranged by Nino Caruso, Torgiano, Perugia , Italy.In 2013 has been artist in residence in Fuping FULE, China, preparing an installation for the Museum. She held a workshop at Faculty of Art and Design – Jan Evangelista Purkyne University,Prague, CzechRepublic and at International ceramic art festival in Sasama, Japan. 2015- Scultura ceramica contemporanea in Italia, Gnam, Galleria d’arte Moderna, Roma, Italy She is member of World Crafts Council – Europe.