Abdon Zani

Bio

Bio

Was Born in 1974.

He studied ceramics between Milan and Faenza.

He is an eclectic spirit, an experimenter,moving between sculpture and installation art, obsessed by detail.

In constant search of perfection, through the reproduction and reassemblageof symbology that permeates every day life, he explores the ephemeral,the relashionship/ interaction between mankind-environment focusing attention mainly on those paradoxical and contradictory aspects that it characterizes.

The mimicking ability of ceramic highlights the illusion of reality, moving between the precarious confines of right and wrong, good and bad, life and death.

His work has been exhibited in different European countries, Taiwan, Cina and It is part of pubblic and private collections.

Currently lives and work in Faenza.

Have Fun!!

di Daniela Lotta

The works of abdon zani seem want to affirm ceramics is “inhabited” by the fascination of commodities, attracted by the seductive sparkle of objects and the visual grammar of the imaginary media. His research is aimed at exploring how this archaic material can very well compete with the most advanced materials of industrial origin, such as polymers, resins, synthetic enamels, particularly suitable to provide exact copies of anything. Likewise, by virtue of its “weak”qualities, the ceramics is able to assume different formal registers and its skin is available to accommodate inexhaustible colors and decorations. It is precisely because of this ductile nature of his that ceramics is increasingly a language present in contemporary creative research in art as in design. In the artistic practice the ceramics has continuously changed identity, adhering from time to time to a multitude of different approaches passing from the open and biomorphic forms, tied that is to the sphere of the organic phenomena and the gestural-vitalistic intervention, to those closed, defined in the contours, bound to the patterns of a rigorous minimalism or, again, arriving to the alienating effect of a hyper-realistic figuration aimed at simulating with lenticular fidelity any existing texture. And it is to this last option that Abdon Zani is interested, to the incongruous combination between form and content, between the impeccable ceramics technical execution and the prosaicity of the aesthetics of the consumable. Through the plastic language of ceramics, the artist intersects everyday domestic objects with the iconography of weapons, he appropriates immediately recognizable symbol-objects by faithfully replicating them and then lowering them into new contexts that stimulate ambivalent reactions in the observer. The feeling of familiarity that runs through his work active, not without irony, a reflection on complex issues linked to the fears of contemporary society. Have a Fun! After all, it is a cheerful picnic basket overflowing with greedy visual offers that at a later glance manages to communicate the paradoxes and contradictions of our time. A demystifying tension that emerges from the lightness: cracks in the custom of everyday life that provide to those who look at epiphanies of meaning. In the work of Abdon Zani the attraction to exploration objects of domestic everyday life with the iconography of the figural and expressive potentialities of ceramics produces a latent narrative that it is up to us to interpret. Once the attention is caught, concepts such as repetition, seriality, anonymity, the fascination exerted on modern society by weapons, emerge and invite each of us to draw on our own the conclusions that we consider similar. In Ready, Aim, Fire!! (2013) , and in other works of this kind with the most Poptical imprint, the wall installation is composed of countless rifle barrels that stare at the spectator with obtuse insistence. Sculptural installations like Oops! and Surplus (both of 2011) instead address the problem of overproduction by declaring that there is no difference between a human being and the waste of mass consumption, and therefore replicas of body parts and residues of urban consumption should be treated in the same way: anaesthetising the whole with a coat of white. Explore the relationship between the original and the copy Sorry It Is The Last One (2013) and Egg Tree (2012), that addressing the social and political actuality trigger a stratification of meanings drawing from collective anxieties.

Curriculum vitae

 Curriculum vitae with biography, exhibitions,collection, awards.

Work Experiences & Exhibitions

Work Experiences & Exhibitions

Work Experiences

In 2017 be present in a ICAA three months residency program located in Dehua (CHINA)

In 2016 he took part in two months of artistic residency at the Internaional studio located in the modern district called Ceramic Art Avenue in JINGDEZHEN, one of the most important cities for the porcelain work in China.

In 2015 involving Monika Gricko and Daniel Wetzelberger in the project M.A.D. always in collaboration with Monika Gricko realizes a painting by 20mt x 4mt on the facade of the Francesconi Group industrial warehouse.

In 2014 He is a part with the work “souvenir from the twentieth century ” at the permanent exhibition DULCISSIMA GENS MANFREDA , at Manfrediana Library of Faenza.

In 2013 collaborated with the Manufacture Sottosasso for a restoration of the wall covering Kabul’ s royal palace(AFGHANISTAN)
In same year participated in the 49th International Ceramic and Sculpture Symposium Boleslawiec (PL)


In 2011 won the  Prize of the Presidente del Senato at the 57° Faenza Awards.
Collaborated with the Panda Project theater company, creating props to the show The Wolf Bile Bile that won a special mention at the Festival of children’s theater in Porto Sant ‘Elpidio.

In 2008 he recorded the set of the show and Didì Gogò of Cevolani, Parisi, who received the Audience Award at the Ermocolle/08 Theatre Festival .


From 2004 in various years experiments various types of processing and collaborates with shops such Geminiani, FOS and attended the studios of sculptors Aldo Rontini and Guido Mariani, contributing to the realization of large-scale works.

Exhibitions and Fairs

2019 THE OTHERS ART FAIR , Turin(ITALY). Space curated by ZEIT Gallery

CREATVE TIMES, Santeufemia Art Gallery, Venice (ITALY)

FAENZA CONTEMPORANEA, Emilia Romagna Legislative Assembly, Bologna (ITALY)

2018 SO POP, Isorropiahome gallery, Milano

SPAZIO NELLO SPAZIO, Contemporary art fair Cesena (ITALY) – Curator Oscar Dominguez

CONTEMPORARY MIX, sponsored by MIC (International Museum of Ceramics) Faenza, Tecnargilla Fair, Rimini


2017 XIII ARTISTIC CERAMICS BIENNALE , Museum of Aveiro, Aveiro (PORTUGAL)

2016 TAIWAN CERAMICS BIENNALE 2016, TAIPEI (TAIWAN).

2015 FAIENCE AU XXI SIECLE, Aubagne, (FRANCIA) – Curator Claudia Casali M.A.D. A NESSUNO IL SUO,(NO ONE HIS) Galleria Comunale d’arte della Molinella, Faenza(RA-ITALIA

2014 Faenza per Nove, Old mill Antonibon, Nove (VI- ITALY) 34°CICA-Internetional Museum of ceramic, L’Alcora (SPAIN) Art Gallery “ Terra Rossa ”, Liepzig (GERMANY)

2013 Ceramic Art today in Italy , Villa Necchi Campiglio ,Milano (ITALY)- Curator Jean Blanchaer Ceramiki Festival Boleslawiec (POLLAND) 58° Premio Faenza, MIC Faenza (RA –ITALY)


2011 57° Premio Faenza, International Museum of Ceramic, Faenza ( RA-ITALY )

2005 WATER FOR LIFE, Voltone della Molinella Faenza (RA-ITALIA)

2001 AD ARTE, Art Gallery Fatto ad Arte, Monza. (ITALIA)