I am Maria Helena Saparolli, a Brazilian Ceramic Artist who lives and works in Curitiba, Paraná State.

My artistic journey involves a combination of elements repeated and grouped together. That’s my way of creating context and making connec-tions. I’m constantly revisiting these same patterns and it’s out of pure ne-cessity. By connecting “similar” elements I am able to show their difference, and by connecting “different” elements I can show their similarity. Duality and relativity are a constant in my work, and I love to explore it.

For example, when I use goblets in repeated patterns with simple shapes but enclosing endless possibilities, they are like individuals for me, some-times containers, sometimes content which are transformed according to my self-expression needs. I think my greatest source of inspiration and my motivation lies in the people, their behaviors and emotions. Often the marks and impressions I get from people or give them is what really matters to me. Human nature attracts my attention by revealing its conflicts, attempts, mis-takes, correct guesses, griefs, and above all, its mankind.

Passion is what drives me to choose ceramics as my preferred means of self-expression. I’m strongly connected to the labour involved and my work develops and is fulfilled by the contact with clay and its different colors and textures, by the long waiting hours to dry, and finally by the alchemy of mat-ter transmutation through fire. At such times I am convinced that ,as an artist, my true nature is of a ceramist.

Maria Helena Saparolli
August 2020

The clay with which Adel Souki works is always impregnated with her stories and her time, in a constant exercise of coping with herself. Born in Divinópolis, Minas Gerais, she grew up among books, but also making pots with clay.

Already graduated, Adel began studying art and working with clays, graduating in Fine Arts from the Guignard University, where she met the sculptor Amílcar de Castro who taught her “that beauty is what is true, and that originally was to seek her origin”.

Between workshops, courses, and exhibitions, approaching the Japanese artist Toshiko Ishii was a special moment. In addition to the preparation of the clay and of the contact with the firing in the Anagama kiln – of Japanese tradition, she came to understand time better, in ways which are more and more plural, also influenced by her tireless trips to teach/learn more about clay and firing, from visiting small communities in the interior of Minas Gerais to large cosmopolitan centres.

The area around the kiln was gradually composing an environment that paradoxically hides and reveals clues of what happens in the artist’s research. There are traces of what it is, of what it may turn out to be and what should stay as a suspension.

In space, fragments of past experiences clutter, overlapping, in seemingly random alternation, remnants of transformation endeavours and seemingly sterile intervals, revealing paths and processes in which the artist faces herself as if she plunged into life to understand death or into death to understand life.

In Adel’s paths and processes, we find signs of all this, of searches outlined between the beating and kneading the clay, gathering shards, covering, digging and bringing to the possible limit the diving into / coping with the matter, sometimes crude, heavy, persistent, sometimes decanted, almost tactile, ephemeral.

Acácia Azevedo – Bachelor’s degree in Pedagogy , certification in Visual Arts and Teaching Methodology. Attending a Master’s degree in Arts at PUC-Campinas/SP . Teaches pottery wheel, handmade pottery, ceramic serigraphy (silk screen) and glaze formulation. She has attended exhibitions in Brazil and abroad (China, Portugal, Spain, Thailand and Turkey). Founding Member of CCBRas – Brazilian Contemporary Ceramics. Member of International Ceramic Artists Association- ICAA. Member of International Academy of Ceramic- IAC.

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E-mail: acacia.rsa@puccampinas.edu.br / acacia10@gmail.com

What do some of these objects not identifiable at first glance represent? What intention should we see in this? Faced with the alignment of busts, the reference to the “three little monkeys” can be perceptible, but what about the fourth? The titles here provide essential clues. Because they are not abstract objects, even if some could be perceived as such. Transgenic vegetables, Can’t think… François Ruegg, in his desire that the form suggests without imposing a univocal vision, often specifies in the title the nature of his remarks.

Que représentent certains de ces objets non identifiables au premier abord ? Quelle intention faut-il y voir ? Face à l’alignement de bustes, la référence aux « trois petits sin- ges » peut être perceptible, mais qu’en est-il du quatrième ? Les titres, ici, donnent des pistes essentielles. Car il ne s’agit pas d’objets abstraits, même si certains pourraient être perçus comme tels. Transgenic vegetables, Can’t think… François Ruegg, dans sa volonté que la forme suggère sans imposer de vision univoque, précise souvent dans le titre la nature de son propos.

O que representam alguns destes objetos não identificáveis ​​à primeira vista? Que intenção devemos ver nisso? Diante do alinhamento dos bustos, a referência aos “três macaquinhos” pode ser perceptível, mas e o quarto? Os títulos aqui fornecem pistas essenciais. Porque não são objetos abstratos, ainda que alguns possam ser percebidos como tal. Vegetais transgénicos, Não consigo pensar… François Ruegg, no seu desejo de que a forma sugira sem impor uma visão unívoca, muitas vezes especifica no título a natureza das suas observações. | Suzanne Rivier

Introduction

The creativity and innovation in Norma Grinberg´s pannels, and objects reflect in space a long period of art experience and aesthetic research.

Norma stands out as one of the best artists in ceramic sculptures in Brazil. Her work – several times awarded in Brazil and overseas – highlight its original and contemporary qualities, all acknowledged by both the public and critics. Her aesthetic and artistic proposal is to update the language inspired in concretism, Bauhaus and Minimalism through the use of installations, update in Contemporary Art and developments such as interventions in the architectural space.

A variety of materials is used, such as framed mortar, iron, aluminum, sand, acrylic, plastics and others. However, the ceramic is the very core of her art work, and it seeks the rescue of aesthetic and artistic potentialities, as well as subvert their limits.

Norma combines art and technique to create installations, to produce huge sculptures, or just little forms of life, both indoors and outdoors. As examples there is the installation Humanoids as part of the monument Place with an Arch, in the gardens of the Escola de Comunicação e Arte at Universidade de São Paulo, as well as the “Cururus”, exposed in the Museu de Arte de São Paulo. Objects of Jewish inspiration are also part of her works.

Artist Phases

1985 – Production of clean forms and neutral and few colors, without extra details,      are the characteristics of the artist´s work. The emphasis is on form and volume

1987 – Norma introduces colors in her works, which are less imprisoned by form and by bracket. At this point, color and form complement each other

1990 – A more baroque phase, with lights and shadows, destroying form and creating folds. It is the Humanoids phase, the transmutation of form and matter. It is also the beginning of the emphasis on architectural elements, such as towers and arches

2000 – Opening of the Studio Norma Grinberg. The artist´s studio is built as a aesthetic form and playful space with sculptures, installations and monuments for the inner rooms From some works, the ecleticism of materials and the research of forms, gain new routes.   Works such as Chanukia in PVC and the Kasher Cow, were done for the Cow Parade Project, are examples of distinct experiences beyond other works.

2004 – From some works, the ecleticism of materials and the research of forms, gain new routes.   Works such as Chanukia in PVC and the Kasher Cow, were done for the Cow Parade Project, are examples of distinct experiences beyond other works.

2006 – Also in ceramics, forms gain new interventions and new relations with space.  Installations as Free Flight explore the limits of two and three dimentional art.  For Unstable Installation, the Ateliê leftovers are constituent elements of something new.

2007 –From the exploration of an element by chance (casual) appeared the first of what would become the work of Enredadas(untangled).   A distinctive step in the trajectory of the artist, searching the “unicity” and the elaboration of more organic forms, shaped one by one.  However, the precision and rationality of the initial volumes are still presented in the cut and of the choice of the wavy plan

2008 – The artist is affected by the influence of the Brazilian Pantanal, of its unusual and vast fauna and flora. The singular animal life of this spectacular ecosystem turns into special forms in Norma´s hands, like the works that can be saw at FLICAM – FuLe International Ceramic Art Museums – at Fuping, China. Norma created an installation plenty of colors from the nature, developing forms that blend species into each of her creature beings, combining the elements: air, water and earth.

Studio Norma Grinberg

“In the studio the artist can totally express her concerns, from conceptual and artistic order, to practical and technical, by turning them into visual poetry. The closer it is to a place the artist evaluates as ideal for the execution of her work, the more the studio creates the necessary conditions for art to express itself completely, in depth, expand itself, break limits and open doors. The studio “per se” doesn´t make the art work. It can contribute, however, to maximize the conditions for excellent work.

An art studio is also the author´s work, for it expresses in  itself, inside and outside architecture and in the distribution of objects and equipment, personal reflections on the creative art process.

When I created the concept of the studio together with the architect Gilberto Nascimento, who was responsible for the project and its execution, I added elements of art history, concepts on art work and the technical aspects  essential to ceramics. A ceramics studio should respond to almost industrial requirements and consider that the work, from design to the finishing góes through successive steps: modelling, molding, casting, finishing, first firing, glazing, second firing, third firing…

The studio is a dream come true. A dream that I would like to share with friends from the past and the present – the everlasting friends. It is a space that honors the higher art of roots that get lost in time: ceramics.”