Artists
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ISABEL CISNEROS AND THE FLEXIBILITY OF MATTER
| by Maria Rosaria Roseo | Isabel Cisneros, a Venezuelan artist from Caracas, trained at the Universidad Central de Venezuela, specializing in literature and museology, before continuing her education at the Instituto de Diseño Fundación Neumann and the Asociación Venezolana de las Artes del Fuego. Initially focused on ceramics, she soon turned to textile techniques and materials, drawn by their flexibility, texture, and rich chromatic variety—ideal tools to satisfy her constant drive for research and innovation. This choice allowed her to break free from the constraints of weight and fragility inherent in clay, opening the path to experimentation that has become her signature approach. Her sculptures, often composed of industrial…
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AGATA CIECHOMSKA: COLOR IN MOTION AS AN ARCHITECTURE OF PERCEPTION
| by Maria Rosaria Roseo | Agata Ciechomska, born in Łódź, Poland, is one of the most original voices in the contemporary scene focused on material experimentation and chromatic research. From an early age, she cultivated a profound relationship with materials and the culture of craftsmanship—a connection with everyday objects that led her to study Material Design at the Łódź University of Technology, where she earned her BA. Although her program was primarily oriented toward industrial design, certain artistic courses sparked her interest in the creative potential of materials. The university also offered opportunities for international experiences, and she subsequently completed a Master of Arts (MA) at the Swedish School…
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HYBRID CREATURES AND PLURAL IDENTITIES: THE MULTIDIMENSIONAL PRACTICE OF CAROLINE ACHAINTRE
| by Barbara Pavan | Born in France in 1969, Caroline Achaintre grew up in Germany and currently lives in the United Kingdom. She attended the Kunsthochschule in Halle before continuing her studies at the Chelsea College of Art and Design and Goldsmiths University of London. This multiplicity of cultural and academic contexts has significantly enriched her personal background and imaginative universe, although, as the artist herself remarks, it remains difficult to determine precisely how these experiences have translated into direct influences on her artistic research. “I left France when I was very young,” she explains, “but I still feel a strong emotional connection to the country, which is why…
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MONUMENTAL AND ETHEREAL, THE “NATURAL SENSITIVITY” OF YU WEN-FU
| by Elena Redaelli | In Pingtung, wind is a constant presence. At the sites of the Luo Shan Feng Arts Festival, gusts arrive suddenly and relentlessly, slipping through narrow streets, under shop shutters, and into the cracks of old houses facing the coast. It was there that I first saw one of Yu Wen-Fu’s woven bamboo works in progress: an organic membrane of culms and slats wrapping around the surviving walls, embracing the architecture’s voids and making the wind’s direction visible. This relationship between place, structure and air is a hallmark of his practice. It runs through the Taiwanese artist’s work from his early projects to his large-scale installations.…
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DANIELE DAVITTI: NAMELESS ART BETWEEN THREAD, FABRIC, AND IMPERFECT BEAUTY
|by Susanna Cati | There comes a moment in the journey of certain artists when the need to define oneself ceases to make sense. It is from this subtle and decisive threshold that Daniele Davitti’s work takes shape. Born in Florence in 1986, his practice moves freely between painting, textiles, embroidery, and collage, deliberately rejecting any attachment to a specific category. His education in Fashion Design at Polimoda, followed by studies at Bunka Fashion College in Osaka, represents far more than an academic path: it is the origin of a design sensibility grounded in essentialism and a profound attention to materials. Defining the work of this artist is, by his…
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MATTER, BODY, AND RELATIONALITY: DAVIDE VIGGIANO’S TRANSDISCIPLINARY PRACTICE BETWEEN ECOLOGY AND POSTHUMAN THOUGHT
| by Barbara Pavan | Davide Viggiano (Potenza, 1994) is a multidisciplinary artist whose background, spanning Textile Design and Visual Arts, has from the outset been shaped by the intersection of heterogeneous fields of knowledge. His artistic practice is distinguished by a sustained focus on experimenting with eco-sustainable materials of organic origin, explored through DIY processes and innovative methodologies aimed at the manipulation and formulation of new material compounds. Alongside his artistic production, he has developed a significant practice in the fields of design and education, collaborating with brands such as Westwing and teaching at institutions including NABA Nuova Accademia di Belle Arti, Accademia di Belle Arti di Roma, Accademia…
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BETWEEN NATURE AND NARRATIVE: THE TEXTILE WORLDS OF JOANA SCHNEIDER
| by Maria Rosaria Roseo | Joana Schneider, born in Munich and now based in Amsterdam after studying Textile Design at the Royal Academy of Art in The Hague, has seen her work recognized internationally in exhibitions and art fairs such as PULSE Art Week Miami, Enter Art Fair Copenhagen, Masterly Milan, Sainte Anne Gallery Paris, and PAN Amsterdam. She continues to build an artistic universe in which reclaimed materials, manual processes, and speculative imagination intertwine in increasingly dense and layered ways. From the early years of her training, Schneider has chosen ropes, nets, and recycled industrial yarns as the core materials of her practice, drawn to their rough physicality,…
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HANNALIE TAUTE: UNRULY EMBROIDERY – STORIES OF COLOUR AND SHADOW
| By Elena Redaelli | On slick, cold surfaces of recycled rubber, black as crude oil, or on sepia-toned vintage photographs, South African artist Hannalie Taute weaves coloured threads into seductive, unsettling stories. These stories are dense with metaphor and hidden meanings. Figures rise from her stitches: shouting, slipping in, digging deep. Nothing here is calm or soothing. The work plays openly with visceral fears. Your gaze is caught by uncompromising, brutal, courageous details. What draws you in is a magnetic narrative that sparks curiosity and leaves you uneasy, just beneath the skin. Through her art, Taute prods our most intimate reactions. Her disobedience plays with stereotypes. Taute steps into…
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STITCHING TIME BACK TOGETHER: FRAGMENTS OF LIFE IN THE WORK OF FANNY ALLIÉ
| by Raffaella Polverini | Fanny Allié, born in Montpellier, France, earned a Master’s degree from the École Nationale Supérieure de la Photographie before settling in New York City. Her artistic practice combines mixed media and textile-based languages, emerging from an exploration of discarded materials, lost objects, and the marginal elements of everyday life. This perspective enables an investigation into human experience and the fragile, interconnected narratives that shape the fabric of social existence. The artist’s practice may therefore be understood as that of a contemporary gatherer of discarded materials – both her own and those of others – through which she investigates the relationship between abandoned objects and the…
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SÉVERINE GALLARDO: INTERIOR ARCHITECTURE TAKES SHAPE IN TEXTILE
| by Susanna Cati | Born in Angoulême, France, Séverine Gallardo belongs to that generation of artists who had to construct their own language almost in opposition to the academic training they received. She graduated from the School of Fine Arts in Marseille in 2000 andfound herself immersed in a context in which manual and material work occupied a marginal position, often overshadowed by more conceptual and immaterial practices. This environment, however, did not limit her path; on the contrary, it helped define a precise and conscious choice, oriented toward the rediscovery of gesture, matter, and making. Alongside her artistic activity, in 2007 Gallardo cofounded, together with Franck Guyon, the…
