Martha Pachon Rodriguez (Bogotá, Colombia, 1967) after graduating both inPedagogy of Arts and in Fine Arts at the “Surcolombiana” University of Neiva,moved to Italy to complete her ceramic studies in Faenza, one of the mostrepresentative ceramic production centres in Italy. In 1990 she began her career as aprofessor of Art Education, and she taught Sculpture and Design at theSurcolombiana University in Colombia until 1999. Her porcelain sculptures mixingelements of the natural world with legends and folklore from various cultures, oftenevoke sea creatures and the underwater world using slabs of extreme finenessallowing her to obtain stunning transparency and colour effects. For Martha thecreation of each piece is an event which represents a journey into a sacreddimension. The actual making is a passage, a kind of magic cathartic rite, part of anintellectual and conceptual event that needs time, enormous patience, skill, and joy.Through her very personal elegy to slowness, Martha and her work reminds us thatour existence hangs by imaginary and imperceptible threads of relations anddiscoveries: it is up to us to unravel the tangled knots or let nature take itsinscrutable course.

Onofrio Acone (Italy, 1977) is a ceramic artist based in the Amalfi Coast in the South of Italy. Onofrio creates spectacular vessel shapes by coiling red clay to which he then applies a watery glaze and beautiful brush strokes for a refreshing Mediterranean flair. It is exquisite how the décor nicely complements the form as it is the tactile aspect of these vessels recalling the natural elements of southern mediterranean nature. Most of Onofrio's pieces are made with rudimentary techniques and equipment, sometimes even found objects or natural elements: pieces of wood to forge the various types of clay, fabrics used to imprint textures, pieces of metal to cut with imperfect precision the sheets of raw material which will ultimately be shaped by hand. Even the glazing techniques are deliberately simple: a basic but meaningful colour palette, a predominance of different white enamel bases typical of the Amalfi Coast which are applied with natural sponges or even with fingers.

Bottega Vignoli  is a brand of artistic ceramics based in Faenza, one of the most representative ceramic production centers in Italy. Founded in 1976 by sisters Saura and Ivana, Bottega Vignoli stands out for its limited production, accurate details and skilful experimentation resulting in stunning unique and one-of-a-kind pieces. Their style is immediately recognizable and expressly follows the path of Mediterranean majolicas, with inspiration taken from  Byzantine, Roman  and Islamic themes reinterpreted in their own unique style. Bottega Vignoli production includes ornamental pieces, household objects, elements for urban design, limited series and customized lines. The baking with full-fire reduction technique which they use allows them to obtain shimmering colours and iridescent reflexes so that every piece has unique and inimitable features. The decorative themes are historical reinterpretations or completely original ones, but always on the path of research that makes this territory so distinct.

Violante Lodolo D’Oria (Genoa, Italy, 1971) is a London based Italian artist. She studied in Paris and New York, where she graduated in Fine Arts. Before returning to the ceramic medium in 2010, Violante has worked as a painter for a decade, developing a peculiarly refined sense of colour: her painting background is remarkable in her glazing technique and use of colour combination. Violante creates one-off sculptural ceramics inspired by the great Italian baroque architecture. The prominent features of these vessels are the concave-convex spatial effects, the rhythmic distribution of mass and space, the richness in surface decoration and colour alongside an overall impressive complexity of texture. Each piece is hand made using white smooth stoneware clay and fired in oxidation at 1260°C. Violante has developed an incredible glazing technique using a combination of three or more matte and shiny glazes which she masterfully drips and overlays achieving a stage where the colour impacts the texture and the texture exalts the colour itself.

Elisabetta Bovina (Broni, 1961) and Carlo Pastore (Corbara, 1965) founded Studio Elica in 1995: since then they have been working together in the fields of design and applied arts. A fruitful contaminations between arts is the main signature style of Pastore and Bovina who  have brought ceramic art to dialogue with apparently distant artistic practices like scenography, fashion as well as performing arts. Extremely prolific artists, they are committed to the creation of their own collections signed as Studio Elica and in the meantime they also work for other brands such as Visionnaire, FOS Ceramiche, Arcolaio and Floor Gres. In 2009 they have opened Crete pièce unique in Bologna, a very eclectic space which is at the same time a showroom for their own creations, a gallery where they personally curate a selection of pieces by other designer-makers and an experimental platform for performing arts shows. 
 

Antonietta Mazzotti (Faenza, Italy 1950) attended the Istituto d’Arte per la Ceramica  in Faenza and opened her first workshop in her hometown taking part in group and solo exhibitions at international level. In 1976 she has transformed the neo-gothic greenhouse of Villa Emaldi in her workshop. Antonietta Mazzotti has worked for some of the most important international museums and has received several important recognitions worldwide. Her works have been featured in major Italian magazines of interior design and she has acquired international visibility being featured in major international press publications, such as The New York Times. She still lives and works at Villa Emaldi in Faenza where she continues her research on historical decor and models which she sophisticatedly and conceptually reinterprets in her contemporary ceramic collections.