Italian Ceramics from the MIC in Faenza to Poland

The exhibition Mater Ceramica, Living and Contemporary Matter from MIC Faenza travels to Poland. From 13 February to 5 March, it will be on view at the Italian Cultural Institute in Warsaw, and from 11 April to 15 June at the Museum of Ceramics in Bolesławiec. This initiative is part of the Italian Design Day 2025 program.

The exhibition narrates, through around twenty works from the MIC Faenza collection, the evolution of auteur ceramics—an artistic journey that is formal, technical, and poetic, beginning in the early 20th century and continuing into contemporary production.

The exhibition project begins in the Art Nouveau era, with works by Domenico Baccarini and Galileo Chini; Gio Ponti’s designs connected to major manufacturers such as Ginori; the eclectic Art Deco aesthetics of Arturo Martini and Francesco Nonni; and leads up to the truly contemporary language of the second half of the 20th century as seen in works by Lucio Fontana, Fausto Melotti, Leoncillo, Nanni Valentini, Antonia Campi, Carlo Zauli, Alfonso Leoni, Guerrino Tramonti, and Enrico Baj. Present-day ceramic production is represented by the hyperrealist works of Bertozzi & Casoni and the material investigations of Giacinto Cerone, Antonio Violetta, and Alessandro Roma.

“The space that major international exhibitions—such as the Venice Biennales—have given to ceramics in recent years is a response to the growing popularity it is enjoying among artists of all generations, both emerging and established masters,” commented Claudia Casali, director of MIC Faenza. “Today, ceramics is an artistic language that has overcome the long-standing 19th-century division between fine and applied arts.”

The exhibition is organized by the Italian Cultural Institute in Warsaw and the International Museum of Ceramics in Faenza, in collaboration with the Emilia-Romagna Region, the Municipality of Faenza, and the Union of Romagna Faentina.