CELEBRATING INTERNATIONAL WOMEN'S DAY
Coralla Maiuri
A ceramic artist whose expressive and vibrant tableware fuses painterly techniques with functional design to create one-of-a-kind pieces.
Q1: Can you share a bit about your journey as an artist and what first sparked your passion for working with ceramics and porcelain?
As a child, I loved playing with clay in the river near my house.
Throughout my career, I’ve explored many different paths, such as oil paintings, drawings, sculptures, artist’s books, small ceramics, velvets, videos, and enamels on plexiglass.
At one point, I felt an overwhelming need to create everyday objects, but since my desire to explore is limitless, I expanded beyond plates and worked on unique pieces, both small and large, using unconventional techniques and materials.
Q2: How does your experience living between Milan and Rome influence the materials, techniques, or design elements you incorporate into your porcelain and ceramic works?
The choice of materials doesn’t depend on where I live. I can compare Milan and Rome from a different perspective. Milan opens unexpected poetic doors for me, like a small violet plant pushing its way through a crack in the asphalt. Rome, on the other hand, is a vast abyss of beauty that one can’t protect oneself from.
Q3: Looking ahead, what do you hope to achieve in your craft? Are there any new projects or dreams you're excited to pursue?
All my work aims to subtly yet deeply alter the perception of space: opening a crack towards a loving unknown. In my future, I hope to never betray this need for hope.
We are shyly experimenting with materials beyond porcelain and ceramics, like metal and velvet. My dream is to create a world, and I began by creating a room – La Stanza di Coralla (The Room of Coralla), at the Mia Gallery in Rome.
A kind and sensitive journalist once told me, "You feel protected, yet projected far away!"
I hope my Stanza can be infinite, generating a symphony that is coherent with the deepest and most vulnerable part of myself. A place capable of making those who enter it travel.
Q4: Could you describe one of your favorite pieces or collections, such as your Roman Renaissance or Baroque-inspired series? What makes it special or meaningful to you both personally and artistically?
Among the first plates I made, my favorite is L’Apollo Bianco (The White Apollo). It’s like something out of a fairytale; the lapis lazuli blue reminds me of the sky over Bethlehem, and the golden marks along the edge are like slashes from scimitars.
I love Apollo because it features all the new techniques I had to invent at the beginning of this journey, like gold glazing.
Now, I’m happy to leave the Baroque behind, to embrace essential and geometric symbols like in the Impressions line, and even to use solid colors that immerse us in a soft infinity.
Q5: What advice would you give to other women looking to pursue a similar path in the world of ceramics and handcrafted art?
My advice is to create things that deeply resemble us. This is not easy at all. It’s a painful search, and all available tools must be used: imitate the classics, imitate a work you envy, and if things turn out ugly... keep going. This is the most important point: the more courage you have to move forward and dive deeper, and to bravely endure a dissonant range of forms, the more the creative process will bring you back to your own path. Reaching this point is a great gift, because your work will reveal things to you that are still unknown.
