The artist Ciro Fornaro in his Art Gallery
COMPANY
The Fornaro Ceramic Workshop officially began its activity in 1966 in Grottaglie (Taranto).
Ciro Fornaro was born in Grottaglie in 1938 and graduated from the State Institute of Art in Grottaglie, specializing in Ceramics.
He participated for many years in the national and international artistic scene. His artistic education was deeply influenced, from a very young age, by his apprenticeship in the workshop of Master Pasquale Antonazzo, where one went to learn the “craft”—an endeavor sustained by great determination and an inexhaustible creative energy.
His artistic career was enriched with research and creative activity until the last days of his life (*25.07.1938 †08.06.2018).
The raw material, interwoven with historical memory, transformed the Grottaglie ceramic workshop into a “forge” of artworks. The deep and intimate connection between Ciro Fornaro’s sculptures and the socio-cultural context laid the foundation for an evolution under the sign of creativity.
Sculpture—regardless of the materials used—was, for Fornaro, a means to understand and feel people, objects, and life itself. Sculpture was effective communication and, in short, Art, in close symbiosis with his work and his long experience across different expressive forms.
Moreover, the old Fornaro Hypogeum Oil Mill in Grottaglie is now the site of a ceramic exhibition and art gallery—a cultural hub that has hosted important international exhibitions: including four editions of the International Biennale of Contemporary Ceramics and a solo exhibition by artist Ernesto Treccani, among the most significant—together with the vast production of Fornaro sculptures and ceramics.
In recent years, the company has been enriched by the collaboration of his daughters Antonia, Giusy, and Pamela, as well as his wife Angela, who will carry forward both the ceramic design activity and new research into forms and ceramic materials.
Blond, curly-haired, a flat cap on the head of a boy in short trousers who spent his days giving life to his dreams, in a “putea” (workshop)…
