Who is the reader, 2023

Paola Grizi   Emerging artists

• Paola is an Italian artist born in Rome in 1968.

• Paola Grizi first became interested in art while she was still a child, worked with clay since she was born, mentored by her grandfather who was a famous Italian ceramist, painter and sculptor Rodolfo Ceccaroni, at work. Paola Grizi studied Classics in high school. She earned her degree in Italian Literature with first-class honors in the University of Rome "La Sapienza". After that, Paola Grizi embarked on a career in journalism, at the same time spending time on her art, working heavily with clay. But the desire to express herself artistically is stronger than anything else: Paola wants to shape the earth and manipulate the material. The talented journalist then becomes an artist. In 2003, she deepen her technique with Salavatore Rizzuti, professor of Sculputre of Palermo`s Accademy of fine arts.

• In fact her artistic interest reemerged strongly and was responsible for her choice to dedicate herself to sculpture. Her passion for writing will never cease to occupy her and to mix with the bronze that she works.Here, letters and human nature are intertwined and merged. Through her bronzes Paola gives us her dreams and ambitions, her fears and her nightmares. A hand, a face, a nose emerge from these bronze pages, with indecipherable characters. Are they there to break the mystery of history, to challenge the truths or to keep a secret?

• The Italian artist Paola Grizi focuses her research within the thin line that separates figurative from informal shapes. Inside this area she molds recognizable elements that emerge from abstract shapes.These are a representation of the unconscious, a step forward in understanding the inner world. This duplicity - figurative and informal - finds its meaning in the language, which creates a clear dichotomy through its production. Sometimes the faces emerge from the material are as epiphanies of the consciousness. In Paola Grizi`s terracotta works classical workmanship coexist with informal declination, giving movement to the work as a whole. Just like other works representing infants, her sculptures have to be interpreted as a birth of awareness.

• Paola enjoys international recognition. She has had numerous exhibitions in various Italian cities (Rome, Venice, Faenza, Florence, Milan, Pisa, Ferrara...). Whether in Italy, France, Spain, the Netherlands, Belgium, the USA and China, her work is rewarded by numerous prestigious awards. 

 was chosen by the Pontifical Gregorian University in collaboration with the Kunst-Station of Köln in Germany for a Contemporary art project in the Church of Saint Peter, along with eleven other international artists.

• Awards & Prizes:

2017: Honorable Mention at XXXIX International Ceramic Artwork Competition - City of Gualdo Tadino, Italy

2016: Invited jury of the 36th CICA International Competition de L'Alcora, Spain
2015: Winner of the "CICA 2015 Public`s Prize", at the 35th CICA International Competition de L'Alcora, Museu de Ceramica de L`Alcora, Spain

2015: Chosen artist by the Pontifical Gregorian University in collaboration with the Kunst-Station of Köln for a Contemporary art project in the Church of Saint Peter, along with eleven other international artists, Germany

2015: Invited artist to represent Italy, by the Chinese Chanchun Municipality, in the 4th China Changchun International Ceramics Symposiums

2014: Winner of the "3rd International Biannual Competition of traditional Ceramic" - Ascoli Piceno, Palazzo dei Capitani, Italy

2014: Invited artist to represent Italy, by the Chinese Chanchun Municipality, in the 3rd China Changchun International Ceramics Symposiums

2009: Winner of the special price of critics, La Pergola Arte, Florence, Italy

• Public Collections : 

- Museu de Ceramica de L`Alcora (Spain)

- World Sculpture Park of Changchun (China)

- Museum of ceramic art of Ascoli Piceno (Italy)