About
My practice approaches plasticity as a sensual, unstable condition. I push materials around, sensing their pulse as they soften and liquefy under my hands, as if they were throbbing beneath them. Sometimes my whole body gets deep into them, trying to escape control and recognise what I crave without knowing. I am interested in what happens when materials and structures assumed to be fixed shift through pressure, heat, touch, and manipulation, becoming fragile, unstable, permeable, or resistant.
I work with reinforced concrete, petroleum jelly, wax, resin, bitumen, fibres, and glass, often harvesting them from abandoned plots, wastelands, and building skips. Through casting, weaving, plaiting, warping, and melting, I push materials away from expected behaviour: concrete becomes saggy and lazy; wax records pressure; glass deforms like butter while retaining tension. Petroleum jelly appears solid yet remains viscous and responsive, holding contradictory qualities at once.
Architecture and infrastructure provide metaphors for power and control, while the body offers a fluid, fragile counterpart. My sculptures draw on fencing, scaffolding, columns, and skeletal frameworks that sag, stretch, leak, or contract. Wax and concrete seep through metal mesh like goosebumps rising to the surface, while glass fences hang in delicate balance. Forms associated with strength become vulnerable, porous, and strangely bodily.
I am drawn to marginal urban spaces where vegetation grows through detritus and informal paths form, where things and behaviours slip beyond intended use. I draw on the spatial dynamics of gay cruising: anticipation, desire, coded behaviour, anonymity, proximity, and temporary occupation. Queerness becomes a way of moving through and reimagining how bodies and materials occupy space.
I crave touch as a way of making sense of what surrounds me: temperature, roughness, stickiness, and viscosity. Through touch and anticipation, inert materials begin to pulse with something bodily, sensual, and unresolved.
Photo: @minghiclaudio
CV
b. 1976, Florence, Italy. Lives and works in London, UK.
Education
2023 MA Fine Art, City & Guilds of London Art School, London
2014 BA (Hons) in Art, Drama and Music Studies, Alma Mater Studiorum, University of Bologna, Italy
Solo Exhibition and Presentation
2026 Never So Close | Mai Così Vicini, Cvm Venio, Larciano, Italy
2024 Valentino Vannini at The Phoenix Garden, The Phoenix Garden, London
Penetrable Boundaries, Standpoint Gallery, London
Group Exhibitions
2026 After the Centre, Bomb Factory Marylebone – London Design festival, London
Personal Preference, Thames Side Studio Gallery, London
A Cielo Aperto, Osservatorio Astronomico G. Leopardi, Montedoro, Italy
Finger in the Heart, Survival XXIV, Wroclaw, Poland
Bending Time, Prokofiev Studio, London
Could You Come to Me, Ione & Mann, London
Terence Higgins Trust 2026 Auction, Christie's, London
Almost Held, Studio 17, Stavanger, Norway
To lure, to hunt, to catch, Unit 03 Florentia Village, London
Can You Stand the Rain?, 104 Manor Park, London
2025 New Contemporaries, ICA, London
Postgraduate Show, City & Guilds of London School, London
The Lamb of Tartary, 2 Beuclerc Road, London
THISS 2025, The Hide Artist Retreat, Stroud
Art with Pride, City Belonging Project, Sheffield Haworth, London
Acting Out, Ex Voto Gallery, London
Terence Higgins Trust 2025 Auction, Christie's, London
2024 New Contemporaries, Karst Gallery, Plymouth
an eXhibition of SMALL things with BIG ideas, White Conduit Projects, London
Uncarved Block, Unbleached Silk, Meeting Point Projects, London
Dawn is now once again, GPS Greenfield Project Space, London
Unknown Territory, SET Lewisham, London
2023 NOW Introducing 2023, Studio West Gallery, London
Surprise, Somers Town Public Art, Somers Gallery London
MA Show, City & Guilds of London Art School - MA Fine Art
Interim, City & Guilds of London Art School - MA Fine Art
2016 Final Show, UCL, IoE Institute of Education, London
A dog in the playground, Peckham Platform
2015 Candid Art Trust, Angel, London, UK
Residency
2026 Studio 17, Stavanger, Norway
2025 Artist Glass and Casting Fellow at City & Guilds of London Art School, London 2023 - 2025
2024 Artist Residency, Standpoint Gallery, London, 13 Nov 2023 - 25 Jan 2024
2019 Atelier Meridian, Printing Workshop, Portland, USA, 29th Jul 2019 - 4th Aug 2019
Awards
2024 Bloomberg New Contemporaries 2024
2023 Sculpture Award, Studio West Gallery, London
Press/Features
2026 Healthy Artist – Making Meaning Through material with Valentino Vannini 29.01.26
2025 New Contemporaries review – Kafka portals, concrete phalluses and a Muppet Pasolini, The Guardian, Jonathan Jones, Wed 15 January
New Contemporaries review — Gen Z artists give us reason to be cheerful, The annual exhibition, held this year at the ICA in London, spotlights artists who are looking at the world with a wry and gentle wit, The Times, Tue 14 January
Creating their own ecosystem, The Art Newspaper, Anna Brady, Thu 17 July
Taking Air: gathered notes on walking in cities, Orla Carolin, Sat 5 July
Everyone Is Invited, Resonance FM 104.4, Alessandro Paiano, Thu 15 May
Want to find the art stars of the future? They’re at the ICA right now with ‘New Contemporaries’, Time Out, Eddy Frankel, Wed 15 January
2024 Bloomberg New Contemporaries 2024, Made in Plymouth, Linda Bell
2023 The Gift of the Surprise in the Community, Trebuchet Magazine, 11th December Studio Visit Valentino Vannini, Blanco Gallery, 8th
December
City & Guilds MA Show 2023 Review, London Art Roundup, 3rd September
2016 A dog in the playground, Freelands Foundation and UCL/Institute of Education