PAOLA SMITA ZANNINI - Italy
Contacts: zanninipaola9@gmail.com
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Mixed clays (manganese and semi-refractory) h cm 17
Mixed clays (manganese, semi-refractory, galestro) length cm 22
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Smooth white clay length 35 cm
Mixed clays (manganese and semi-refractory) length cm 34
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Untitled
Mixed clays (manganese and semi-refractory) h cm 17
Red clay and semi-refractory h 20 cm
About his Art
I approached art thanks to my father's sensitivity, who recognized creative potential in me from a young age, accompanying me to attend the Ferrarese School of Painting directed by two painters: Alfeo Capra and Paolo Fabbri.
My creativity later found expressive space with the Japanese painter Meera Hashimoto.
With her I studied in India at the Multiversity of Poona from 1996 to 2001, conducting research work on color, a meditative-artistic process that then continued in Italy.
My painting has also received impulses from anthroposophical painting inspired by Rudolph Steiner.
In 2013 I exhibited my paintings in the Garden of Palazzo Schifanoia in Ferrara and in some commercial venues that have spaces dedicated to art. In 2015 I exhibited at the Gate-Porta degli Angeli in Ferrara, conducting workshops for adults and children.
In my artistic journey from 1197 to 2000, I collaborated with the Saman community of Bondeno (Ferrara) for the recovery from drug addiction, conducting creative activities with color and working on the body with dances, sounds, and meditation for both the community guests and the staff.
Since 2014 I have been writing poetry, expressing myself in dialogues of the soul and free emotions. I participated in the “24-Hour Poetry Marathon” described as a “poetic hostel” organized by the Municipality of Ferrara and the Ferrara Writers Group.
In 2015, as part of the "Day of Remembrance," I participated in the theatrical performance dedicated to the Shoah both as an actress and as an artist using "emotional" colors.
In the years 2016-2017, I collaborated with Prof. Daniele Seragnoli, Full Professor of Theatre and Performing Arts History at the Faculty of Arts and Philosophy at the University of Ferrara, conducting artistic workshops in the course of Expressive Techniques within the Degree Course in Psychiatric Rehabilitation Techniques at the Faculty of Medicine and Surgery, specifically focusing on non-verbal communication also through the use of color.
In 2017, the experience with sculpture, Raku ceramics, and the potter's wheel began.
Group Exhibitions 1997 - 1998
Group exhibitions at Multiversity in Poone (India) curated by Meera Hashimoto.
2017 Participation in “Spoleto Arte verso Caravaggio at the Hilton Hotel in Malta Curriculum
2017 Exhibition “Autumn Colors” at the City Gallery of Padua
2018 Exhibition “Cinema and Art” at Palazzo Zenobio in Venice organized by the critic and historian Giorgio Gregorio Grasso 2018 Exhibition “Art is Poetry” at Palazzo Scroffa in Ferrara
2018 Exhibition “Hyperrealism and Magic Realism” at Palazzo Zenobio in Venice organized by the critic and historian Giorgio Gregorio Grasso 2018 Exhibition “Artica-mente” at Sisal Wincity in Milan curated by the critic and historian Giorgio Gregorio Grasso
2018 Exhibition “Art is Poetry 2” at the Spazio Porpora Gallery in Milan
2018 Exhibition “Artica-mente 2” at Sisal Wincity in Milan curated by the critic and historian Giorgio Gregorio Grasso
2018 Exhibition “On the Notes of Art” at Palazzo Zenobio in Venice organized by the critic and historian Giorgio Gregorio Grasso
2018 Exhibition “Art is Poetry 3” at the Atelier des Arts Gallery in Mantua
2018 Exhibition “In Search of Infinity” at Palazzo Muzzarelli Crema in Ferrara
2018 Exhibition “Christmas in Art” at Sisal Wincity in Milan curated by the critic and historian Giorgio Gregorio Grasso
2018 Exhibition “Biennale of Metropolitan Visions” at Piacenza Expo organized by the critic and historian Giorgio Gregorio Grasso
2019 Exhibition “Contemporary artists” at Sisal Wincity in Milan curated by the critic and historian Giorgio Gregorio Grasso
2019 Exhibition “Brera contemporary art” in Milan Brera curated by the critic and historian Giorgio Gregorio Grasso
2019 Exhibition “Art and Fashion” at Arcadia Gallery in Milan Navigli curated by the critic and historian Giorgio Gregorio Grasso
2019 Exhibition “Contemporary art in Venice” at Palazzo Zenobio in Venice organized by the critic and historian Giorgio Gregorio Grasso 2019 “International exhibition of visual art” at the Cascina Grande Cultural Center in Milan Rossano
2019 Exhibition “The Essence of Things” at the Mega ART Gallery curated by Claudio Giulianelli Zannini
2019 Exhibition “The State of Art” 58th Venice Biennale at Palazzo Zenobio organized by the critic and historian Giorgio Gregorio Grasso
2019 Exhibition “Figurative Painting” at the “Spazio M’Art” Gallery in Milan Brera organized by the critic and historian Giorgio Gregorio Grasso
2019 Exhibition at the Alexander Museum Palace in Pesaro
2019 Exhibition “Great Contemporary Art Exhibitions” at the Fabrica del Vapore organized by the critic and historian Giorgio Gregorio Grasso
2019 Exhibition “The State of Art at the Time of the Venice Biennale” Palazzo Zenobio in Venice organized by the critic and historian Giorgio Gregorio Grasso 2019 Exhibition “Souls Without a Voice” in Ferrara curated by Brigitte Otwald
2019 Exhibition “Why Not Choose Love? A Mary Pickford Manifes” at Palazzo Zenobio in Venice organized by the critic and historian Giorgio Gregorio Grasso
2019 Exhibition “What Art Tells” at Galleria Spazio Porpora in Milan curated by Claudio Giulianelli
2019 Exhibition “Figurative art between realism and non-realism” at Brera Milan curated by Giada Tarantino and Giorgio Gregorio Grasso
2020 Exhibition “International contemporary art” at the Spazio Gallery in Milan curated by Giorgio Gregorio Grasso
2020 Exhibition “Carnival with Art” at Palazzo Zenobio in Venice organized by the critic and historian Giorgio Gregorio Grasso
2020 Exhibition “Festa del Redentore” at the Il Traghetto Art Gallery
2021 Online participation in the Milanese Gallery curated by Roseli Crepaldi
“The ceramics of Paola Smita Zannini”
2019 Group exhibition “The Suspended Ceramics” in Ferrara curated by the LEMANI Laboratory
2019 Participation in the worldwide “Ceramist Day”
Solo Exhibitions
2013 Solo exhibition “Tratti di Vita” at the garden of Palazzo Schifanoia in Ferrara Curriculum vitae of Paola Smita Zannini
2014 Solo exhibition “Dedicated to..” at Concept Stare Ubuntu Project in Ferrara
2015 Solo exhibition “Journeys…beyond” at Gate Porta degli Angeli in Ferrara with workshops for adults and children
2018 Solo exhibition “Spontaneous research in the creative journey” at the Hotel Torre della Vittoria in Ferrara
2018 Solo exhibition “Emotions and Colors” at the private healthcare facility Day Surgery in Ferrara
Artistic Participations
2019 Donation of artwork to the University Hospital of Ferrara for the permanent exhibition “RI-Tratti di luce”
2019 Participation in the “Art Against Violence VITARU project” at Palazzo Zenobio in Venice
2019 Participation in a permanent group exhibition at “La Terza Arte” in Ferrara
Suspended Lives
Paola Zannini
I love living colors in every perception.
It is an emotional language, with cultural and psychological content. It is a thought extracted from the unconscious, experienced in subtle perception as a symbol. It is a connection between spirituality and matter, a magical function… In this journey, I am seeking to enter form through awareness and creative and personal transformation/evolution.
Both in paintings and in sculptures I try to pay attention to the forms of the body. They are ethereal, they are “flying”, they are intense. The focus of the message is in the torso, legs and arms are only “desires” for communication, still expressive even “in absence”, they rotate in the movement and in the rotation of feelings. The “lack” does not limit the expressive “movement”, but creates a message, a form of non-verbal language. The position does not require the completeness of the body, it is already inherent and present in the rotation… They are ancient wounds, they are possible healings…
On canvas I use acrylic: it is a symbolism of matter to remind myself. When it dries it does not allow me to go back. So I cannot return to the past, only to the future.
The paintings are a mirror. I express it through the colors and the expressions of the body and faces, where the eyes gather my presence.
Bodies and faces represent their dignity, their past, their freedom, their feelings, and their mystery.
When I create my sculpture I enter it through my hands and overcome the limit that the mind places on my creativity. Emotion shakes me and I overcome it to express everything I cannot avoid. I enter my shadows… thus begins the movement that is already inside me.
Waiting and darkness have the same intensity.
The contact with clays envelops me, kidnaps me and continually brings me back to my silence… it does not only bring me the possibility to express myself, but also to the existence of hidden desire.
For me, my paintings and my sculptures are linked to a subtle thought. Every time I create I have an inner whirlwind, an abysmal void that captures the sense of death as a mysterious beginning.
The only mistake is to create with hesitation, because that generates fear… Perfection does not exist, imperfection generates possibilities.
Suspended lives… their silence… uniqueness…