Mario Ceroli is a leading international sculptor. From the beginning of the Sixties to most recent times, his oeuvre has always been distinguished by his remarkable ability to ‘craft’ the most diverse materials and his boundless creativity. Many of his works are held by private collectors and important museums in Italy and abroad, and he has taken part in some of the most prestigious exhibitions (he won the sculpture prize at the 1966 Venice Biennale with Cassa Sistina). Although this work, like later ones, to some extent prefigures Arte Povera, the major developments in his production came about mainly through his highly original research into profiles, usually executed in wood. A notable example is La Cina (1966), a compact ‘army’ of silhouettes that forms a spectacular installation, and refers to the collective ideology that informs this work.
Ceroli has designed the sets for many theatre, cinema and television productions. These include Riccardo III directed by Luca Ronconi; Orgia by Pier Paolo Pasolini; Norma directed byMauro Bolognini; Omaggio a Martin Luther King with music by Goffredo Petrassi; Aida, conducted by Giuseppe Sinopoli. He has also created many monuments, most recently for Piazza Strozzi and the Fortezza da Basso, in Florence.
This exhibition is not intended to be anthological; instead, it focuses on the striking aspect of Mario Ceroli’s work and the variety of materials he employs: wood, glass, coloured earths, fabric, sand, ashes, and so forth. Thus, the selection of seminal earlier works (such as La Cina, Pier delle Vigne, Le Tavole di Mosè) is flanked by the large installation he has created with powdered colours and wooden profiles especially for this exhibition, in the central room, while works made with wood and ashes, with sandpaper, colours and other media, which embody his most recent research, will be featured in the adjacent rooms.
The exhibition is curated by Maurizio Calvesi, who will write an essay on Mario Ceroli’s artistic trajectory for the catalogue. The catalogue will also include a critique on this exhibition and the fantastic aspect of the artist’s work by Luigi Ficacci, and another by Claudia Terenzi on the different means of expression adopted by Ceroli, which will offer a panorama of his sculpture, painting, installations and set designs, presented through the analysis of his most important exhibitions and the most significant critiques.