The Shape of Gold. 2/12 – Emiliano Maggi

Emiliano Maggi

Horned Vessel, 2021
luster on glazed ceramic
48 x 45 x 29 cm

Horned Mirror, 2021
luster on glazed ceramic, acid-etched mirror
mirror ⌀ 78.5 cm, ceramic 40 x 40 x 15 cm

Golden Worn, 2020
glazed ceramic, acid-etched mirror
mirror ⌀ 78.5 cm, ceramic 49 x 40 x 8 cm

BUILDINGBOX dedicates the 2021 season to the theme of gold in contemporary art with the annual exhibition project The Shape of Gold curated by Melania Rossi. The exhibition aims to offer an overview of the use of gold in contemporary artistic research by presenting the works of twelve artists who allude or use the noble metal in different ways and practices. The installations will be visible 24 hours a day, 7 days a week from the window in via Monte di Pietà 23.

The second artist, featured from February 11th to March 9th, 2021, is Emiliano Maggi (Rome, 1977) who will be presenting three new works specifically created for BUILDINGBOX.

With a production that ranges from sculpture to performance, music and painting, Emiliano Maggi has created a personal universe populated by characters that lie midway between fairytale and horror.

The artist draws inspiration from nature and its free, instinctive vital energies, and also from the libertine erotica of the nineteenth-century, to create works with psychedelic, mythological overtones. Ceramics are his privileged medium, and he uses pastel, almost pearlized hues, that accentuate the dreamy atmospheres of the works. The sensuality of his sculptures is heightened by the glossy finish, which adds a tremulous, vibrant, delicate feel. Fascinated by the fusion of animal and human, Maggi delves into the imagery of fairytales, ’70s horror and the rural world, creating captivating, unsettling atmospheres that open up to the dark side and its grotesque aesthetic.

The three ceramic works produced specifically for The Shape of Gold – Horned Vessel, Horned Mirror and Gold Worn – see the use of golden luster, as if to highlight the satyr’s sinuous horns, the curvy, animalesque shapes of the three objects. The gold-colored mirror looks like it has the power to transport us into a fantasy world of the artist’s invention, suspended between past and future. There is something both romantic and disturbing in these works, that evoke the gilded embellishments of a futuristic Baroque, in which decadence and beauty are inseparable.