Paolo Staccioli exhibits in our gallery since 1993.
I believe that Staccioli's great ambition is underlined by his plastic art: that of a return to the Etruscan origins, re-appropriating, understanding, and confirming them. A certain - intentional- mystery surrounds these figures, constructed with a deliberate roughness, not too open in their hedonistic aspects, as happens with the vases, touched up by lumps of clay which are manipulated and pressed towards internal, hidden meanings and inaccessible secrets. The same thing happens with theheadlong falls of his horses, and their precarious positions on top of unstable columns, and together with them, the slight, sketched, unbalanced little figures of human beings. Let me repeat that Staccioli's ambition is extremely significant: that of pursuing an ancient world, the dream of antiquity, and of fragments of a civilisation which he intends to reconstruct by means of the indications of pictorial and plastic dremas. We must undoubtedly recognise that he possesses the right temperament to do so, if we also bear in mind all that happened in the last fifty years of "anachronism" in the world of the arts, which Staccioli approaches with a primitivistic spirit. Gian Carlo Bojani
Paolo Staccioli: A Biography
Born in 1943, Paolo Staccioli began his career as an artist in the 1970s, starting out as a painter and soon attracting attention at the local level. In the early 1990s, the need to experiment with a new artistic vocabulary prompted him to move to Faenza, to the workshop of a local ceramist and potter called Umberto Santandrea, where he learnt the techniques and skills associated with this particular art. It was here that Staccioli produced his first vases, initially adopting the glazed ceramic technique then gradually experimenting with "reduction" firing, which allowed him to achieve an extraordinary iridescence and sheen.
Having fully mastered the technique, Staccioli then set up his own studiocum-workshop in Scandicci on the outskirts of Florence, where he continued under his own steam to experiment on a daily basis with the use of fire and of copper oxides, producing a vast range of vases which he then decorated with imaginary figurative narratives fixed for eternity by an enamel sheen. These works earned him his first true recognition and success at personal and collective exhibitions as well as at important cultural events: his ceramics with their strong metallic effect and sparkling enamel finish soon won praise for their elegance and originality not only in Florentine art circles but throughout the country.
The characters that populated the surfaces of his ceramics in this phase (merry-go-rounds with toy horses suspended in mid-air accompanied by winged putti, trumpet players, dolls and Pulcinellas) soon acquired a third dimension, translating into sculptures yet without losing their fairy-tale aura, their extraneity to all notion of time or place: idealized shapes reminiscent of pre-Roman statuary (of Etruscan sculpture in particular), to which the polychrome of ceramic added a vigorous effect of contrasting masses. Warriors, travellers, cardinals and horses soon joined the already varied throng of imaginary figures and began, in the second half of the 1990s, to add their lively touch to major public and private collections both in Italy and abroad.
In the early part of the new millennium, in his eagerness to experiment with new materials and with different expressive registers thanks to the use of those materials, Staccioli began to translate his ideas into the more lasting medium of bronze (albeit without ever losing his love of working with earthenware), moving away from research into copper oxides and towards metallic patinas. It was in this more recent phase that his figures took on a previously unknown monumentality, which tends to set his horses and his warriors even more firmly in a dimension outside of time.
Paolo Staccioli has won an enormous amount of praise and recognition both from critics and from the general public, especially over the past ten years, and he has taken part in awards and exhibitions that have won him a place of absolute prestige in the field of contemporary art. His most recent exhibitions include "ANIMA MUNDI" 21/02/2004 - 14/03/2004 Galleria Gagliardi San Gimignano
Le gioiose ceramiche di Paolo Staccioli [Paolo Staccioli's Joyous Ceramics], organised by Ornella Casazza at the Museo delle Porcellane in Palazzo Pitti in Florence (29 October 2005 – 25 June 2006), "POPOLO GUERRIERO" 30/09/2006 - 05/11/2006 Galleria Gagliardi San Gimignano and a personal exhibition entitled I segni della Terra [The Marks of the Earth], inaugurated at the Museo Archeologico di Fiesole on 2 June 2007.
One of his works was chosen as the Tuscan Regional Authority's official gift to President of the Republic Carlo Azeglio Ciampi in April 2006, and at the end of the year, in November, another of his works was added to the permanent collection of the Museo Internazionale delle Ceramiche in Faenza. He travelled to China in the spring of 2008 in response to an invitation from the director of the International Ceramic Art Museum in Fùpíng, commencing fruitful cooperation with that institution and producing several works while he was there, all of which are now part of the museum's permanent collection. Other ceramic creations of his have been selected as prizes for lifetime achievement awards to two distinguished protagonists of the "Estate Fiesolana" festival: American film director Spike Lee and actor Dario Fo. A personal exhibition of his work was inaugurated at the Italian Cultural Institute of New York on 4 June 2008, and to tie in with the event, two bronze warriors were chosen by American collector and magnate Jack Larsen for his Longhouse Reserve sculpture park in East Hampton. A work of Staccioli's was also offered to President of the Republic Giorgio Napolitano to mark the twentieth anniversary of the Scuola Superiore di Sant'Anna in Pisa in October 2008. His more recent experiences include participation in an exhibition entitled Memorie dell'Antico nell'arte del Novecento [Echoes of the Classical World in 20th Century Art] at the Museo degli Argenti in Palazzo Pitti in Florence in 2009, and his personal exhibitions at the Italian Embassy in Washington (April 2009), at the Selective Art Gallery in Paris (September 2009), at Spazio 522 in New York and at Kens' Art Gallery in Florence (both in the spring of 2010). Finally, in September 2010, he held a personal exhibition of his work in Pomarance, where a bronze warrior is shortly to be erected outside the town hall.
2011 opened with two new exhibitions: Vagare nel mito, at the Sala delle Colonne, Comune di Pontassieve (January) and Paolo Staccioli. Opere / Sculptures 1991-2011 at the Museo Horne in Florence (March - May).
In 2012 he exposed some of his bronzes at Pietrasanta, Piazza del Duomo and at the Galleria Paoli, and exhibited in Siena "Il guerriero e la farfalla. Paolo e Paola Staccioli", Ex convento Santa Chiara, Nobile Contrada del Nicchio; in November at the Fortezza da Basso di Firenze on the occasion of the Salone del Restauro di Firenze; in December he was Guest of Honour both at the Contemporanea Arte Moderna e Contemporanea Fiera di Forlì and at Imagina. Arte in Fiera of Reggio Emilia.
In May 2013 one of his Bronze Warriors was erected in a square of Pontassieve (Florence).
On september 2013 a personal exhibition will be held on the occasion of the Festa della Ceramica di Nove (Vicenza).
On Frebuary 2014 a personal exhibition in Museum Palazzo Medici Riccardi, Firenze"Le cortesi, le audaci imprese io canto…"
2016 "Luminosity. Ceramics by Paolo Staccioli", Hammond Museum, North Salem, New York, 2016 "Paolo Staccioli. Dialoghi", Arianna Sartori Arte & Object Design, Mantova,
2017 "Giovanni Maranghi e Paolo Staccioli. Incontro/ Begegnug", Engel & Voelkers and Friends, Feuerbach, Stuttgart Germany,
"Paola e Paolo Staccioli, Passaggi", Auditorium del Comune Piazzale della Resistenza, Scandicci,
2017 "Appunti d'arte" di Giovanni Maranghi e "...Rame, terra, fuoco" di Paolo Staccioli, Ipogeo "I Giardini di S. Agostino", Matera,
2017 "Paolo Staccioli. Viaggio onirico", Museo Giuliano Ghelli, San Casciano in Val di Pesa (Firenze)
2017 "Staccioli/Bavia/Caplin, N20 , 20, Cross Street, 2BG London GB,
2017 "Paolo Staccioli. Un viaggio immobile. Incontri fermate attese", Galleria Lupo 'Art, Palermo, 2017 "Paolo Staccioli. Memorie. Ceramiche e bronzi", Galleria d'Arte Athena, Livorno.
2021 "Paolo Staccioli. Nel Ventre Antico dl Palazzo - Esercizi di guerra e giochi di bimbi" Palazzo Vecchio - Sala d'Arme. Firenze
2020 Installazione della scultura "Cavallo con Angelo", piazza Vittorio Veneto, Lajatico (PI)
2020 Collettiva "Summer show 2020", N20 Gallery, London
2020 "Ceramiche e bronzi di Paolo Staccioli", Anna Sartori – Arte & Object design, Mantova
2019 "Danilo Fusi – Paolo Staccioli Indistinti confini", Florence Art Gallery, Firenze
2019 "Unchained – Open air exhibition / Seo Young Deok e Paolo Staccioli", vie del centro storico di Capri, a cura della Galleria Liquid Art System
2019 "Paolo Staccioli. Guerrieri, cavalli e centauri", Magazzini del Sale, Palazzo Pubblico, Piazza il Campo, Siena
2018 Collettiva "Seduzione, bellezza, contemporaneità. Il mestiere delle Arti", Museo Nazionale di Ravenna
2018 "Trasparenze, Maranghi / Staccioli", Kunstgalerie Bech, Schorndorf, Stuttgart. In collaborazione con Istituto di Cultura Italiana di Stoccarda
2017 "Paola e Paolo Staccioli, Passaggi", Auditorium del Comune Piazzale della Resistenza, Scandicci
2017 "…Rame, terra, fuoco" di Paolo Staccioli, Ipogeo I Giardini di S. Agostino, Matera
2017 "Staccioli/Bavia/Caplin", N20 Gallery, London, 2017
2017 "Paolo Staccioli. Un viaggio immobile. Incontri fermate attese", Galleria Lupo 'Art, Palermo
2017 "Paolo Staccioli. Memorie. Ceramiche e bronzi", Galleria d'Arte Athena, Livorno
2017 "Paolo Staccioli. Dialoghi", Arianna Sartori Arte & Object Design, Mantova
2016 "Giovanni Maranghi e Paolo Staccioli. Incontro/ Begegnung", Engel & Voelkers and Friends, Feurbach, Stuttgart
2016 "Paolo Staccioli. Viaggiatori nel tempo" vie del centro storico di Capri, a cura della Galleria Liquid Art System
2016 "Luminosity. Ceramics by Paolo Staccioli", Hammond Museum, North Salem, New York
2016 "Seminare arte. Paolo Staccioli", Boutique Hotel zum Rosenbaum, Nals, Süd Tirol
2015 "Il viaggiatore immobile. Paolo Staccioli", Ciemmeci Spazio Arte, Empoli, dicembre 2014 – marzo 2015
2014 "Paolo Staccioli", Galleria Pio Fedi, Firenze
2014 "Paolo Staccioli. Sculture recenti: ceramiche – bronzi", Galleria Arianna Sartori, Mantova
2014Danilo Fusi,"Paolo Staccioli, La luna, il sole e l'anima delle cose", Museo di Arte Contemporanea Lu.C.C.A.
2014Collettiva "Overlooking Garden", Villa La Versiliana, Marina di Pietrasanta (LU), 28 giugno – 31 agosto 2014
2014 Paolo Staccioli & Renzo Galardini "Toskanische Fingerabdrücke – Impronte toscane", Galerie Lacke & Farben, Berlin,
2014 Collettiva "Gioielli d'artista. La tradizione della modernità", Ente Cassa di Risparmio di Firenze, Firenze
2014 Paolo Staccioli "La Superficie dell'Equilibrio", Giardini di Villa Salviati, Firenze
2014 Paolo Staccioli "Poetica inquietudine", Galleria Artespressione, Milano
2014 "Le ceramiche di Paolo e Paola Staccioli", Officina Profumo – Farmaceutica di Santa Maria Novella, Firenze
2014 "Paolo Staccioli. Le cortesie, le audaci imprese io canto", Loggia della Limonaia, Palazzo Medici Riccardi, Firenze
2013 "Paolo Staccioli. Il Primato della storia", Terme il Tettuccio di Montecatini (PT)
2013 Ex Mulino Antonibon, Nove (VI) esposizione personale in occasione della Festa della Ceramica
2013 Installazione di un Guerriero in bronzo in una piazza di Pontassieve (FI)
2012 Ospite d'onore a "Imagina. Arte in Fiera", Reggio Emilia
2012 Ospite d'onore a "Contemporanea Arte Moderna e Contemporanea", Fiera di Forlì
2012 "Il guerriero e la farfalla. Paolo e Paola Staccioli", Ex convento Santa Chiara, Nobile Contrada del Nicchio, Siena
2012 Pietrasanta, Piazza del Duomo (lato campanile) e Galleria Paoli, 2008, 2009, 2011 e 2012
2011 "Danilo Fusi / Paolo Staccioli. Vagare nel mito", Palazzo Comunale, Pontassieve
2011 "Opere/Sculptures", Museo Horne, Firenze
2010 "Paolo Staccioli", Spazio 522, Chelsea, New York
2010 Installazione "Warriors/Guerrieri", LongHouse Reserve, East Hampton, NY, 2007/2010
2009 Galleria Selective Art, Paris
2009 Istituto di Cultura Italiana, Washington
2008 "Paolo Staccioli. La metaforizzazione dell'arcano", Castello dell'Acciaiolo, Scandicci
2008 Istituto di Cultura Italiana, New York 2008
2008 FuLe International Ceramic Art Museum, Fuping, Cina 2008
2007 "I Segni della Terra", Museo Archeologico di Fiesole
2007 Collettiva "Sculture da indossare", Il Fortino, Comune di Forte dei Marmi
2007 Collettiva "Concreta. Sculture ceramiche. Stropparo / Carlè / Tasca / Leverone / Staccioli / Lorenzini",
Palazzo Pretorio, Certaldo
2007 Esposizione personale, Galleri Albin Upp, Oslo, 2007
2006 POPOLO GUERRIERO org. Galleria Gagliardi San Gimignano 30/09/2006 - 05/11/2006
2006 "Le gioiose ceramiche di Paolo Staccioli", Museo delle Porcellane, Palazzo Pitti, Firenze 2005-2006
2005 "Giampaolo Talani / Paolo Staccioli. Tacita", Galleria d'Arte Enrico Paoli, Prato, 2005
2004 "Paolo Staccioli", Chiesa S. Maria della Spina, Pisa
2004 "Anima Mundi", Galleria Gagliardi, San Gimignano (Siena)
2001 Magical Ceramics. Paolo Staccioli", Broadway, Worcestershire (UK)
2001 "Paolo Staccioli", Galleria Man Arte, Paris
1998 "Paolo Staccioli. Ceramiche", Palazzo dei Priori, Volterra
1998 "Paolo Staccioli", Ken's Art Gallery, Firenze
Exhibition with Galleria Gagliardi:
ANIMA MUNDI 21/02/2004 - 14/03/2004
POPOLO GUERRIERO 30/09/2006 - 05/11/2006