, , Media: Stoneware, Firing Process: Electric, Mid-range, Oxidation, Reduction, Soda fired, Surface: Engobe / Slip / Underglaze, Glazed, Image transfer / Decals / Screenprint, Lustre
Solo show Holter Museum of Art, Helena, MT, USA 2023, composed of 61 sculptures displayed in single file around the walls of the gallery space. The work presented was produced in two residency periods at Arch Contemporary (2019/20) and the Clay Studio of Philadelphia (2022).
2021, various, 58,5cm max h, Media: Porcelain, Firing Process: Electric, Mid-range, Oxidation, Surface: Unglazed
Finalist "3rd Blanc de Chine ICAA (International Ceramic Art Award)" 2023/24, Hangzhou, China
The installation “Panthèon Blanc” is composed of a group of images heterogeneous in nature and dimensions, arranged on five rows of ascending steps. Each sculpture reflects an openness to the influences of the history of art of all times and places, passing through the votive sculptures and figurines of the Western and Eastern traditions to linger over the white porcelain figures of Blanc de Chine. “All the gods” is the significance of the ancient Greek word “pantheon”, a concept developed further by the Romans to allow all the divinities of different cultures to co-inhabit under the same sky and to coexist peacefully.
The installation presents itself as a review of mythological figures of diverse morphologies and styles almost as if identifying a globalisation of the deities parallel to the temporal phenomenon of globalisation that invests our society. Divinity, a concept almost unknown to contemporary man, is understood as human psyche that is the product not only of our personal dynamics but also of a collective unconscious, an innate genetic instinct, a shared heritage, of our belonging to nature. The unconscious is a zone from which the sacred arises and the images that spring up from this are the gods.
The sculptures are composed of porcelains from many countries, including France, Spain, Germany, Northern Ireland, Australia and China, used separately or combined in a special blend of paper clay. The recycled porcelain of diverse provenances, reunited in a new mixture of porcelain, becomes a metaphor of biological and cultural contaminations, the maximum expression of our times. This plurality is also expressed in the use of many ceramic techniques used contemporaneously (slip-casting, coiling, slabs, modelling, and immersion of organic and synthetic materials) to define the diverse natures of the figures of the Panthèon Blanc. The origin of the forms in this installation marks a significant return to hand-building in parallel to the use of slip-casting, a technique that gained prominence in my work since my participation in a formative Blanc de Chine ICAA residency in 2017.
, various, figurines: 28cm max., Media: Stoneware, Firing Process: Electric, Oxidation, Reduction, Surface: Glazed
Installation of circa 200 figurines, 3-D printed in clay from a 3-D scan of an Italian figure of the Madonna. During my artist residency at Sundaymorning EKWC in 2019, a pre-existent model of the Madonna of Civitavecchia was scanned and then printed in clay in 3-D. A mould of the resulting figure was created to slip-cast multiples in which the original model was subverted through modifications to produce a series of figures that assume new identities. I chose the colour orange driven by a desire to characterise the project with ‘Dutch’ attributes to render homage to a land which revealed itself both as incredibly rich culturally and historically and also indispensable in the European and international context. Having entered by chance into a religious dimension, I added the term ‘Protestant’, as an iconoclastic element to disfigure the original image of the Madonna and as a word play: Madonnas who protest, almost transforming them into Mad-donne (mad women) who negate the concept of piety and charity of the Madonna. The ‘Protestant Madonnas’ also serve as an example of pure creativity that expresses a continual impetus for regeneration and discovery of the infinite nuances of which the mysterious world of reality is composed.
2019, 500 x 200cm; 42cm H max (sculptures), Media: Earthenware / Terracotta, Firing Process: Low-fire, Reduction, Surface: Lustre
with Maurizio Tittarelli Rubboli (in-glaze luster). Solo Show 2021: Palazzo Ducale, Gubbio; "61st Premio Faenza", 2020/2021, Museo Internazionale delle Ceramiche, Faenza, Italy
2019, 200 x 200cm; 44,5cm H max (sculptures), Media: Porcelain, Stoneware, Firing Process: Electric, Mid-range, Oxidation, Surface: Glazed
"Metallic Votive Wall" 2019, stoneware/porcelain, glaze, 44,5cm H max Korean International Ceramic Biennale (KICB) 2021, South Korea
2020, 250 x 250cm; 40cm H max (individual sculptures), Media: Stoneware, Firing Process: High-fire, Oxidation, Reduction, Soda fired, Surface: Engobe / Slip / Underglaze, Image transfer / Decals / Screenprint, Lustre
“From Stereotype to Archetype” 2020 stoneware, glaze, overglaze, fired in oxidation, reduction, soda-fire, 40cm H max "From Stereotype to Archetype" 2021, solo show, Arch Contemporary, Tiverton, RI, USA
2017, Dimensions vary, 46cm H max (sculptures), Media: Porcelain, Firing Process: Electric, High-fire, Oxidation, Surface: Unglazed
“Neuf Neuves Déesses” 2017 porcelain, unglazed 46cm H max "2020 Taiwan Ceramics Biennial", New Taipei City Yingge Ceramics Museum, Yingge Taiwan (shortlisted); "Ethos: Keramikos 2022", Museo di Palazzo Doebbing, Sutri, Italy
2019, 109-115,5cm H, Media: Stoneware, Firing Process: Electric, Mid-range, Oxidation, Surface: Glazed
“Mary Magdalene, Santa Cecilia, Judith & Holofernes” 2019 stoneware, glaze, 109-115,5cm H "Visioni contemporanee: venti artisti a Castel Sant'Angelo" 2021, Rome, Italy
2017, Dimensions vary, 42cm H max (sculptures), Media: Porcelain, Firing Process: Electric, High-fire, Oxidation
"Globalisation Camouflage" 2017 Slip-cast porcelain, unglazed, 42cm H max WesterwaldPrize 2019/2020 Ceramics of Europe, Keramikmuseum Westerwald, Westerwald, Germany
2014, 160x68,5x84cm, Media: Earthenware / Terracotta, Mixed Media, Firing Process: Low-fire, Other, Surface: Engobe / Slip / Underglaze
"Fire-bearer" 2014, slipped terracotta & mixed media, 160x68,5x84cm (foreground) "Scultura ceramica contemporanea in Italia", Galleria nazionale d’arte moderna, Rome, Italy
Artist Statement
Bio
Paolo Porelli, Rome Italy (1966). After graduating in painting (Accademia di Belle Arti di Roma, Italy), Porelli began a period of experimentation in ceramics in which he identified an anthropomorphic figure as his preferred expressive form. Clay remains his principal medium, although he often integrates ‘ready-mades’ in his sculptures as well as casts of found objects. Life-size to small-scale figures stand alone or in installations. In recent work, Porelli uses 3-D images and 3-D printing to create prototypes for series of figures, individualised through modifications, additions and subtractions.
Porelli’s works have been presented in numerous solo and group exhibitions including international biennials in the US, Europe and Asia. The subject of feature-length articles in the US and Europe, Porelli has done residencies at The Bray, The Clay Studio of Philadelphia, Woodman Artist Residency, European Ceramic Work Centre, Jingdezhen International Studio and more.
Co-founder of CRETA Rome (2012), an international centre for ceramics and fine arts. In 2021, he was elected a member of the International Academy of Ceramics.